










3W) 

? 3 To 




THE BROWNS AT 
MT. HERMON 


Bt X'S.&be.lla t't /MAe 

PANSY 


Author of “Ruth Erskine’s Son”; “Ruth Erskine’s 
Crosses”, “Ester Ried’s Namesake”; “Ester Ried 
yet Speaking ”; “Doris Farrand’s Vocation”; 
“David Ransom’s Watch”; Etc., Etc. 


Chapters 1, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 

ILLUSTRATED 


'i n .TWi 



boston 

LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. . 



Ak'; 


PANSY 


TRADE-MARK 



*3 


Registered in U. S. Patent Office 


Published, August, 1908 

Copyright, 1907, 

By Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. 

All Rights Reserved 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


LIBRARY of CONGRESS} 
Two Copies Heceivou 


DEC 30 i 90 7 


Copyngni tntry 


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Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mass., U. S. A. 


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THE 

BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 

i 

“ MARY BROWN, CIRCLEVILLE ” 

She held the open letter in her hand, re- 
garding it with a bewildered yet whimsical 
look. It was unlike any letter that she had 
eyer before read. She took up the envel- 
ope and gave it careful scrutiny. “ Mary 

Brown, Circleville, Union Co., ” That 

was all. “ It is my name, certainly,’ ’ she 
said aloud, ‘ ‘ though I am used to a middle 
letter, at least, and some sort of a prefix. 
Still, how am I to know that some corre- 
spondent has not forgotten both? It 
matches, I am sure, with my present sur- 
roundings. She gave a swift, amused 
glance at the room as she spoke. A. large 


1 


THE BROWS AT MT. HERMON 


bare room with a dull ingrain carpet on 
the floor, whose too pronounced pattern 
was fading out in spots ; green paper 
shades at the windows, pierced by innu- 
merable tiny holes through which the sun- 
shine filtered, revealing dust-filled corners 
that told of many slovenly sweepings. 
The bed was spread with a coarse coverlid 
that had become yellow with careless 
washings and had been badly patched near 
the centre. It was characteristic of the 
present occupant’s instinct for observing 
small details which she would have been 
glad not to notice, that she knew the patch 
was laid on crooked and was frayed 
around its badly sewed edges. 

Taken together, bed, carpet, curtains, 
and furniture, of which there were the 
fewest possible pieces, were unlike any 
that Mary Brown had ever before made 
use of. She had even not realized that 
there were such rooms. Yet she was evi- 
dently a guest of honor in one of the best 
rooms of the Circle ville Hotel, which 
name, painted in unnecessarily large let- 
ters, swung conspicuously over the central 


2 


u MARY BROWN, CIRCLEVILLE ” 


door of this long, low house that wa» 
sadly in need of paint. It was the only 
hotel in the village, and its accommoda- 
tions, such as they were, had proved to< 
be ample. No strangers save those com- 
pelled by circumstances stayed overnight 
in Circleville. Evem its name was a mis- 
nomer. Why had’ the thought of “ cir- 
cle ” ever been suggested by its one long, 
straggling street! The entire village had 
the appearance of having been left behind' 
in the world’s march. If Mary Brown* 
had not been too listless to do so, she 
could have laughed over the strangeness 
of her being stranded in such a place as- 
this. 

The circumstances connected with her 
coming had apparently been simple 
enough. Of course it had been quite 
unnecessary, as her guardian had taken 
pains to try to convince her. He had 
even laughed a little over her folly, and 
said there was no accounting for a 
woman’s whims; and she had turned 
from him a trifle vexed, and certain that 
she would go then, anyway. And she had 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


gone, and come, — a long journey, which 
involved her being a guest for a few 
hours, at least, at the Circleville Hotel. 

It was now the morning of the second 
day after her arrival, and, so far as the 
business that had seemed to bring her 
was concerned, Mary Brown was ready 
to start on her return trip. But she was 
miserably conscious all the while that 
part of the business which had taken her 
from home was not yet settled, and she 
was by no means ready to return. This 
feeling had increased upon her all the 
while she was eating the very decent 
breakfast that the Circleville Hotel fur- 
nished; albeit she ate for the first time 
in her life with a plated fork that had 
much of its plate washed away, and drank 
her coffee from a cup so thick that it 
called her curious attention to itself when- 
ever she touched it. She had gone back 
to her room and begun in a desultory 
fashion to repack her bag, all the while 
asking herself what possible excuse she 
could frame for remaining longer. And 
then had come that letter. 


4 


4 ‘MARY BROWN, CIRCLE VILLE ” 


“ I took the liberty of bringing it right 
over to yon, ma’am,” the man from the 
freight depot had explained. “ I was 
there when Jim Baker was sorting the 
mail, and I told him I knew the one to 
whom that letter belonged, and I would 
bring it right over.” 

She had thanked him and had checked 
the temptation to give him a quarter for 
his trouble, under the feeling that he 
might be too manly for such return, and 
had broken the seal of her letter and be- 
gun to read before taking time to wonder 
what correspondent could have written to 
her direct in this far-away little village. 
And then the contents of the letter began 
to hold her astonished and absorbed at- 
tention, too much bewildered, at first, to 
grasp its meaning or realize her mistake. 

The letter began abruptly without more 
ceremony than the envelope had shown, 
simply “Mary Brown,” and proceeded 
at once to business. 

“ I have at last made up my mind to* 
try you for the summer, anyway. It is as 

& ten • 


THE BKOWNS AT MT. SERMON 


long way to come for just a summer, 1 
know, but if you don’t suit me for any 
longer than that, there are plenty of 
places where you can try it again. I 
haven’t any fault to find with what my 
niece says about you, but your inexperi- 
ence makes it bad for me ; of course your 
mother’s kitchen is very different from 
mine. Still, I’ll venture it; you will cer- 
tainly be better than nobody. Your uncle 
looking out for your ticket makes it safer 
for both of us; of course I couldn’t risk 
any money on an entire stranger. My 
daughter Ailene thinks I am very foolish 
to have a perfect stranger come so far. 
She says, for one thing, you will be so 
dreadfully lonesome without any of your 
mates that you can’t stand it; but I tell 
her that a girl who is old enough to earn 
her living, and to have need for doing it, 
will have sense enough not to let home- 
sickness hinder. There is no need for 
you to be especially lonesome, either. The 
cook is Irish, to be sure, but she is a nice, 
respectable, good-natured girl, and there is 
no reason why you and she shouldn’t get 


6 


“MARY BROWN, CIRCLE VILLE” 

on together. Besides there will be others 
the table waiters are college girls, and of 
course you understand that that is dif- 
ferent from working for wages, but you 
can make friends, no doubt, if you want 
to. Cook’s name is Mary, too, but we can 
call her Mary Ann, so that won’t bother., 
I have said that I would never try Amer- 
ican help again, because they never know 
their place, but your letter sounds so sen- 
sible that I don’t believe you will make 
any trouble; and I must have somebody 
as soon as possible. You said you could 
start on the 10th, and that would bring 
you here on the 12th. I hope nothing wilL 
hinder your being on hand at that time. 
I shall have to send to the station for you 
a mile away; and besides, it is a bad be- 
ginning for a girl not to do as she said 
she would. If you are going to earn your 
living by working out, you don’t want to 
begin in any such way; so I shall cer- 
tainly expect you by the four o’clock train- 
on Friday, the 12th. 

“ I don’t know that there is anything 
more need be said. I told you all about 

\ * 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 

wages, and the kind of work, in my other 
letter; though as to that, I need most of 
anything a handy girl who is willing to 
do whatever I tell her. I do hope you 
will be one of that kind. 

“ Oh, one thing more. We live in tents 
out here, mostly; it is a summer encamp- 
ment, you know. The dining-room girls 
have a large tent to themselves, and, be- 
sides there not being room for any more, 
they wouldn’t care to have a stranger 
with them ; but Mary has a nice little tent 
all to herself, and I may as well tell you 
at the outset that you will have to share 
it with her. She is just as neat as the 
rest of us, and you can have a cot to 
yourself, but I can’t manage another tent 
this year. My daughter Ailene says you. 
won’t like that; but whether you do or 
not, I thought I ought to tell you. I try 
to be honest and above board with every- 
body. There’s no reason in life why you 
shouldn’t be entirely comfortable with 
Mary; she has lived with me a long time 
and is thoroughly respectable. I guess 
you will find everything as comfortable 


8 


“ MARY BROWN, CIRCLE VILLE ” 


as a body ought to expect. I'm sure I 
hope so; and I shall plan to have you 
met at the station. I guess that is all. 

“ Mrs. Harriet H. Roberts/ ’ 

Mechanically Mary Brown, with the 
thought of the train in mind, looked at 
her watch. Then she laughed. 

“ It won’t do to miss that train,’ ’ she 
said aloud, “ if I am going to earn my 
living. What an extraordinary letter I 
The question is, where 'shall I find the 
Mary Brown to whom it Belongs, and 
apologize to her for appropriating it? 
There is need for haste, it is — why, to- 
day is the ninth! She must start to-mor- 
row without fail ! If Mrs. Roberts should 
send to the station and not find her, I 
wonder what would happen! I must have 
a personal interview with her without" 
delay, and explain why I not only opened 
her letter but (was so absorbed with its 
contents that I read it through without 
realizing that it did not belong to me. 
My original idea was that some lunatic 
had discovered me. Still, Mary Brown. 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HEBMON 


I don’t think this transaction speaks very 
well for either yonr honor or your com- 
mon sense. If the time were not so short 
I would shirk the personal interview and 
leave explanations to that accommodating 
freight agent, or some one else. Poor 
Mary Brown ! I begin to he sorry for her 
again, as I have been a thousand times 
before. I wonder if the girl is used to 
travelling. She is inexperienced^ is she 
also young! So this is the manner in 
which help is hired! I have often won- 
dered just how I should set about it, sup- 
posing Mrs. Hopkins should ever leave 
me, which Heaven forbid. 

“ There was no waste of ink on cere- 
mony. It is simply ‘ Mary Brown,’ and 
no more. It seems not to be the proper 
thing to address one’s help as ‘ Miss/ 
I wonder why not. And I thought all 
business letters closed with a 4 Yours 
truly.’ This one just stops. Mary Brown, 
you must not waste another minute of 
precious time, but you are to set out at 
once in search of Mrs. Roberts’ * help/’ 
The very least you can do under the cir- 


10 


m MARY BROWN, CIRCLEVILLE rr 


cumstances is to see that she gets oft on 
the Thursday through train, although I 
am afraid that will involve another night 
spent in Circleville. Never mind, busi- 
ness is business, I am sure Mrs. Roberts 
would say. I wonder what sort of a girl 
Irish Mary is;, and whether the other 
Mary will relish the situation.. Is it to 
be supposed that Irish Mary is Mary 
Brown? No, that is not probable, or Mrs. 
Roberts would have mentioned it. It 
sometimes seems as though all the Marys 
in the world were either Brown or 
Smith.” * 

She had picked up the envelope and 
was studying the name. After the fash- 
ion of people who spend much time alone, 
she continued to talk to herself, a discon- 
tented look on her face the white. 

4 4 What a hopeless commonplace it 
is!” she said. “ 4 Mary Brown.’ Why 
couldn’t the first name, at least, have had 
some character? It might have been Je- 
mima, for instance* or Johanna. I rather 
like that. What if I had been named 
Bathshebu after my great-great-great- 


ii 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 

grandmother! That would have been dis- 
tinctive, at least; but just ‘ Mary Brown.’ 
There must be thousands of us in cir- 
culation. I wonder what kind of a scheme 
a 1 Mary Brown party 9 would be. I 
might fill . the Euston Square house with 
them and make it look cheery for once. 
Probably some of the Mary Browns of 
the world are cheery. It is not at all 
likely that they are all orphans without 
sisters or brothers or even a choice 
cousin. Nothing in their own right but 
a fortune that all the frauds and freaks 
in the world are after, without the least 
care as to what becomes of her, so that 
they get her money. One thought about 
this interesting epistle was that it was 
one of those dreadful chain-letters that 
must not be broken and must have five 
copies made at once to send to five other 
victims; and I was in haste to get at its 
contents to destroy them. I have ceased 
to have even a semblance of a conscience 
about those chains. I like nothing better 
than to break them.” 

She was busy unpacking her bag again, 
12 


m MARY BROWN, CIECLEVILLE ” 


and searcliing for things that would be 
needed for her changed plans. She was' 
almost cheerful over the fact that there 1 
was work for her to do that was not with- 
out its element of personal interest, and 
that would involve a delay in her return 
home. Meantime, she let her thoughts 
rove on in the whimsical direction they 
had already taken. 

“ I am not sure but that house party 
for the Browns is an interesting idea. I 
might add the ‘ Johns ’ to it; they must 
be fully as numerous as the Marys. 
Think of the John and Mary Browns of 
the country summoned to Euston Square 
for a social function! I wonder how one 
would set about such an affair. I might 
make it local and send personal invita- 
tions to all who appear in the Directory. 
Wouldn’t it call out a motley crowd? ” 

She laughed over her own folly, though 
there was not much joy in the laughter. 

The simple fact was that Mary Thorn- 
ton Brown, only daughter and sole heir 
of the late Everett Thornton Brown, of 
Euston Square fame, was in a dreary and 
13 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON: 


almost cynical mood a good deal of tfie^ 
time. Her laugh closed with a sigh so* 
desolate that even a stranger would have' 
pitied her. She was not' sure that there* 
was a more lonesome and homesick girl f 
in all the world than her weary self. 

The task of finding the other Mary* 
Brown was more complicated and in- 
volved more time than this one had 
deemed possible in so small a village.. 
Jim Baker, at the corner grocery, — who* 
also managed the post-office in one corner 
of his establishment, — was positive ; in 
his statements. 

“ There ain’t no Mary Brown about 
here now, only you: That’s your name,, 
ain’t it? John Jackson was here whem 
I came to it, and he said right off that 
it belonged to you. There used to be a* 
girl living out about two miles from here* 
on the valley road; but they don’t get 
their mail this way. They have it come* 
through the other office, and her letters, 
when she had any, — and that wasn’t 
often I reckon, — had R. F. D . on them,, 
for the rural delivery, you know; and. this*; 


14 


“ MARY BROWN, CIRCLE VILLE ” 


one didn’t have it on. Besides, that Mary 
Brown ain’t there any more; she’s gone 
ten miles away to live, down on the Fern- 
dale road.” 

The Mary Brown to whom he continued 
to pour out this sort of information 
looked thoughtfully at him without see- 
ing him, too much absorbed with her own 
thoughts even to laugh, until afterwards, 
at the curious bit of advice with which , 
he closed. 

“ So I reckon that you jest better make 
up your mind that the letter’s meant for 
you, all right; that will be the easiest 
way out.” 

Her response was to ask many ques- 
tions about the valley road and the house 
two miles out where the other Mary 
Brown used to live. She had decided that 
she must seek her out and learn whether 
or not the letter that she had unwittingly 
delayed was still important. 


15 


II 


MARY JANE BROWN 

At last the little story and a half house 
that was supposed to shelter the other 
Mary Brown was found. It was not early 
in the afternoon when the searcher, who* 
had numerous obstacles to overcome, was 
at last rewarded by its sight, but there 
was no air of afternoon leisure about the 
stuffy little place. The small, unswept 
porch on which the sun beat down fiercely 
was a litter of home-made playthings and 
of children. The tiny yard was simply 
doing duty as a place for rubbish of all 
sorts. A woman who looked overworked 
and discouraged seemed to be trying to* 
divide her time between a bubbling mix- 
ture on the stove, that was bent on boil- 
ing over, and the sorting of a box of 
tomatoes that stood among the play- 


16 


I 


MARY JANE BROWN 

things, the noisy children about her com- 
ing in for their share of attention as 
necessity demanded. 

She owned to being Mrs. Brown, and 
hastily dusted a chair for her caller with 
her apron, while she answered questions. 

“ ‘ Mary Brown? ’ You mean Mary 
Jane? No, she ain’t at home, and what’s 
more she won’t be for a whole month, 
maybe longer.” 

The sentence closed with a sigh that 
marked the mother’s opinion of the eter- 
nity stretching between her daugher and 
herself. 

“ A letter? For her? You don’t say! 
And you read it, thinking it was yours? 
So you are Mary Brown, too! Ain’t that 
queer now? But I don’t know as it is, 
either; there’s a sight of Browns in the 
world, and about half of them seemed to 
be named Mary. Me and Mary Jane was 
talking about that only the other day. 

‘ Ma,’ says she, ‘ I wisht you had named 
me Susana or Roxana or anything else 
in life except Mary Jane! ’ She got so 
kind of tired of hearing the name over 
17 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 

and over, yon know. Where we nsed to * 
live there was a dozen of them, I do be- 
lieve! And so you’re another! Stoppm’’ 
at the hotel! It was real kind of you to 
come away out here with that letter. The- 
hotel is a mighty nice place, ain’t it! but 
dreadful expensive. My land! it don’t 
seem as though there could be folks in 
the world who had money enough to 
board at a hotel! Set down, do, and 
rest.” 

The long-suffering apron was again- 
called into service to make Mrs. Brown’s 
hands fit to grasp the letter, then she 
went immediately into a struggle with its 
contents; and her caller, dropping into 
the dusted chair, studied this new speci- 
men of humanity. So there were people* 
who considered the Circleville Hotel a 
“ mighty nice,” and also an expensive, 
plane! Nothing had seemed stranger to* 
her than the ridiculously small amount 
that had been charged her for room and 
board. Here was a woman to whom her 
house party at Euston Square would be 
a revelation. Heretofore she had givers 


MARY JANE BROWN 


almost no thought to the respectable mul- 
titude known in general terms as the mid- 
dle class. Might they not he an interest- 
ing class to study? She could begin with 
the Browns. 

She was recalled from her musings by 
a series of exclamatory phrases. 

“ Well, now, ain’t that mean? Well, I 
do say! If that ain’t for all the world 
jest Mary Jane’s luck! It does beat all 
how luck follows some folks! And there 
ain’t a better girl in the country than my 
Mary Jane, either. Don’t it seem kind of 
too bad? ” 

There was appeal in the last sentence, 
and Miss Brown felt a longing desire to 
be sympathetic. 

“ I don’t believe I understand the sit- 
uation,” she said, gently. “ Is the letter 
unsatisfactory? ” 

“ Why, of course you don’t understand; 
it’s jest like me to run on without any 
head or tail to what I’m saying. Look 
here, you children run out to the pig-pen 
and play till I get done talking; you 
make such a. racket a body can’t hear 
19 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


herself think. Why, no, there ain’t any- 
thing unsatisfactory about the letter ex- 
cept the time of getting it. Why, it’s this; 
way. This letter’s from California, did 
you notice that? It’s a good ways off; 
you have to travel on the cars pretty nigh 
two days to get to it. It’s down where 
there’s some kind of a camp-meeting 
right in the woods. An awful pretty 
place, they say ; there ’s mountains, and 
water, and big trees and everything, and 
they have a meeting there all summer 
long. And this woman is down there run- 
ning a boarding-house and is terrible 
short of help. She used to live near here 
before she went to California, and she’s; 
got a real smart niece back in the country 
that she wrote out to, to get her to come 
and help her this summer and she’d pay 
her good wages. But the niece is going* 
to be married before the summer is over; 
and she is a friend of my Mary Jane, so 
she came over to get her to go in her 
place. Now, my Mary Jane is kind of 
wild to take a trip on the cars, and espe- 
cially to go to California; she always has; 


MABY JANE BROWN 


wanted to go there, ever since she began 
to study about it in the geography. And 
she kind of liked the notion of the meet- 
ings, too; she ain’t never had much 
chance, Mary Jane hasn’t; jest stuck at 
home and helped her mother. But mostly, 
she wanted to get away for a spell. She’s 
going to get married sometime, if he ever 
gets forehanded’ enough to do it. I dunno 
when it will be; he’s had his mother to 
take care of, and she’s been sickly, and 
there was doctor’s bills and medicine, and 
then there was the funeral expenses. Yes, 
she died, along in the spring, and he 
misses her dreadful. Poor fellow! he 
was as good a son as ever lived, and got 
her everything he could think of, and he 
gave her a real nice funeral. But he had 
to run in debt, of course, and so they 
don’t know when they can get married. 
She’s been engaged to him now for more 
than three years, and I guess she kind o’ 
thought a change would do her good. 
* Ma, ’ says she to me, 4 how" do you sup- 
pose it would seem for John and I not 
to see each other for months! We’re so 


21 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON * 


kind of used to each other now that we 
think we couldn’t manage it apart, bnt 
wouldn’t it be a good plan to find out? r 
That was a queer notion, wasn’t it? I 
dunno as I more than half like it in a 
girl that’s engaged to be married. i Good 
land ! ’ I says to her, 1 if you think you 
could stand it apart, why, don’t ever get 
married; that’s my way of looking at it. 
Married life is trying enough anyhow 
you can fix it, and if you can stan’ life 
apart, it’s a first-rate sign that you better 
keep so.’ Ain’t that your way of looking 
at it? And then her uncle he put in and 
helped. He works for the railroad, and 
he did some things for them last year that 
saved them some trouble and some money, 
and they give him passes on the road,, 
and he fixed it so Mary Jane could go 
without its costing her much; and that 
made her bent on going. And she wrote 
that she would like to come in the other 
girl’s place, and got herself ready and 
waited and waited, and no answer came. 
And here, only last Monday, she give up 
and went off to a family that have been 


22 


MARY JANE BROWN 


kind of coaxing for her all the spring. 
And now, just as she is fast bound at the 
other place, conies along this letter. Ain’t 
that luck for you? Serves that Mis* 
Roberts just right; she needn’t have daw- 
dled along that way about writing. And 
now she thinks my girl can start up at 
a minute’s notice and go. Wants her to 
start on the tenth, doesn’t she? And 
that’s to-morrow, ain’t it? Don’t it beat 
all how things work! ” 

She held out the letter as she spoke, 
as though it belonged to her caller, who 
took it mechanically, as she said: 

“ You mean that you do not think your 
daughter will go, now? ” 

Mrs;. Brown stared. 

“ Why, she can’t,” she said. “ How 
could she? The folks where she has gone 
have been waiting for her for weeks, and 
they was as pleased as could be when 
she told them she would come and stay 
till November; and they sent off the help 
they had had in her place, and give up the 
chance they had of another girl; so of 
course Mary Jane is bound; she’s honest,. 


23 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


my girl is; and help is terrible scarce 
around here. No, I sha’n’t take the 
trouble to send the letter out to her; it 
ain’t of no use now.” 

Whereupon Miss Brown realized that 
she had received a lesson in honor from 
one of those who were called the common 
people, and felt a fresh accession of re- 
spect for them. She was also sorry for 
Mary Jane. 

“ It seems a pity,” she said, sympa- 
thetically, “ that your daughter should be 
disappointed at last, when the opportu- 
nity has come to her.” 

The mother gave her a penetrative 
glance, and grew more confidential. 

“ Well, between you and me, I ain’t 
been laying awake nights wishing for her 
to go. I wouldn’t have put a feather’s 
weight in her way, but seeing I had noth- 
ing to do with it, I’m going to own up 
that I’m mighty glad not to have her go 
away off there alone among strangers, 
and no telling how she would be treated. 
Not but that I wanted her to have an out- 
ing, too.. The fact is I’ve been awfully 


24 


MARY JANE BROWN 


mixed in my mind all along. I don’t 
know as she will ever have another chance 
to go on the cars, or anywhere. He is a 
nice fellow as ever was, but of conrse he 
is far from forehanded; in fact, he’s in 
debt; he couldn’t help it, bein’ the kind 
of son he was. And if they can get a 
place to live in where he can afford to 
pay the rent, I guess they’ll try it to- 
gether next spring; but land! there’ll be 
no such thing as outings. They’ll have 
to bone down to jest living. You know 
how it is when folks is poor? I dunno 
as you do, but my land ! I do, and so does 
Mary Jane. Why, they ain’t planning 
even to go to town on a wedding trip! 
John was talking about it the last time 
he was here. ‘ We’ll walk from the 
church,’ says he, 4 straight over to our 
house, if we have the good luck to have 
a house, and be tickled to death at the 
chance of going to it together.’ That’s 
the way he feels, and I’m glad he does. 
Well, being things are as they are, I can’t 
help being glad that she’s only ten miles 
away from me this last summer, instead 


25 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


of hundreds. I call it her last summer, 
because, in a way, it is. Mothers lose 
their girls after they get married, you 
know. Still, I like John first-rate, and 
he was awfully good to his mother. I 
guess maybe you know John. Did you 
have any luggage down at the station? 
Well, the man that handled it was likely 
John; he is kind of at the head of it all 
down there. Was he a big man with blue 
eyes and kind of reddish whiskers? 
That’s John; John Jackson his name is. 
‘ Ma,’ Mary Jane says to me once, ‘ if 
his name had been John Brown, wouldn’t 
it have been dreadful! If it had,’ says 
she, i I wouldn’t have married him! I 
will have a different name, at least.’ 
That is the way she talked, but it’s my 
belief that she’d marry him if his name 
was Snooks and hers was too. But I’m 
unfeeling enough not to be sorry that this 
letter didn’t come in time, since I didn’t 
lift my little finger to hinder it. ’ ’ 

And then Miss Brown rose up, her de- 
cision made. She had. heard the mother’s 


26 


MARY JANE BROWN 


family history, while at the same time 
she carried on her own train of thought. 

“ I understand your feeling,” she said,, 
gently. “ My mother has been long gone,, 
but I think if she were here she would! 
keep me close to her as long as she could. 
Would you like to have me reply to this^ 
letter for you, and explain the situa- 
tion? ” 

Mrs. Brown’s face beamed her thanks,, 
and her tongue was once more voluble. 

“ Well, now, I call that real kind. I 
won’t deny that I’d rather do a day’s- 
washing any time than to write a letter;, 
and Mary Jane is dreadful busy out 
there, even if she had the letter, and I 
don’t see no use in sending it to her and 
stirring things up again, now that it’s 
too late. I’m kind of sorry for the 
woman, and I don’t mind your telling her 
so; for my Mary Jane is a big loss. She 
ain’t ever worked out before, but she* 
knows how, and she works with her con- 
science as well as with her fingers.” 

And then Miss Brown was fairly out 
en the street, and a remarkable resolve \ 


.the: browns at mt. hermon 


in her heart. She would answer that let- 
ter, but it should be in person! Why not t 
She was Mary Brown, certainly. Evi- 
dently so far as her correspondence with 
Mrs, Roberts was . concerned, the other 
Mary Brown had ignored her middle 1 
name. She had never in her life worked! 
out,” but neither had the other Mary 
Brown, and she believed herself to be a 
“ capable girl ” and “ willing to learn,’ * 
which seemed to be the chief requisites. 
She also had heard of summer camp- 
meetings, and never attended one; and 
she had as weary a longing for something 
different as ever this Mary could have. 

Although she had given the matter 
much thought, she had not been able to* 
plan any outing for herself that was not 
utterly distasteful in prospect; and here 
was Providence, or fate, opening the way 
in an extraordinary manner for a new 
sensation. She smiled over her involun- 
tary use of that word “ Providence,” and 
then sighed a little. She knew people 
who seemed to make use of the word as 
a sort of charm, and she knew a few, a 
28 


MARY JANE BROWN 


yery few, who seemed to derive comfort 7 
from its use. Such she had envied. 

There was in the fashionable world ta 
which she belonged a very large circle of 
acquaintances, each of whom would have 
stared in wonder over the idea that Mary 
Brown, of Euston Square, was a subject 
for pity. She was young, she had perfect 
health, she was so distinctly fine-looking 
that many people called her beautiful, 
she was the sole heiress of the late Ever- 
ett Thornton Brown, millionaire, she was 
the sole mistress of as fine a mansion as 
any of the especially fine ones on Euston 
•Square, — what more could a reasonable 
being desire? 

Yet the sorrowful fact remains that 
there were days together when it would 
have been hard to find a more lonely and 
desolate person, in all the great city 
which was her home, than this same Mary 
Brown. 

Sometimes her desolateness so preyed 
upon her that she walked the streets in, 
sheer despair over the thought of going 
hack to the great dreary house which she b 


29 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


called home. She wanted a real home, 
with father and mother, and brothers and 
sisters, and song and laughter and good 
cheer. Occasionally she had glimpses of 
such homes in passing, before the selfish 
. curtains were drawn close; they were 
always seen through a mist of tears. 
Sometimes there was a glimpse to be had 
of a baby, one of those laughing, spring- 
ing creatures, whose perfect limbs seem 
to be strung on wires. Once or twice, 
when a sash was raised, she had caught 
the gurgle of sweet baby laughter, and 
had been obliged to hastily shield her 
face from curious eyes because of the 
tears that were blinding her. 

When she was a girl of sixteen there 
had been such a baby in their home. She 
was nearly twenty-six now, and had been 
alone in the world and desolate for five 
interminable years. 

She wanted a friend. Oh, more than 
anything else in this world the poor young 
woman told herself that she needed a real 
friend. 

Friends she had, of course, in plenty. 


30 


MARY JANE BROWN' 


Why, she was so used to being sought 
after and quoted and' copied, that there 
were days when she perversely hated it 
all. But, go over her long list of ac- 
quaintances as carefully as she might, 
not one could be singled out upon whom 
to bestow the kind of feeling she meant 
when she used that word “ friend.” 

She had tried. There had been con- 
tinuous weeks during which she had ear- 
nestly cultivated what she afterwards 
called a “ spasm of intimacy,” trying 
to make herself believe that at last she 
had found a friend indeed, only to be dis- 
appointed and to have instead an embar- 
rassing intimacy on her hands. She grew 
afraid of intimacies, at least of the soli- 
tary sort, and her next venture had been 
die: adoption of an entire family;. 


U 

L 

l,,. 


. . 



31 





nr 

MARY BROWN *S FRIENDS 

The dwellers on Euston Square, where* 
the beautiful homes were ancestral, at, 
least as much so as homes can be in this 
new country, were one day treated to a 
sensation. The house and grounds ad- 
joining the Thornton Brown place were^ 
actually sold! To be sure, it was a dis- 
tant cousin who bought it, but he did not 
bear the family name, and altogether it 
was an innovation. It ought to have been* 
resented, and there was a general feeling, 
in the Square that the new family should, . 
in a perfectly well-bred manner of course, 
be let alone. But it chanced that, very 
early in their coming, Miss Brown quite 
by accident came in contact with the new 
family, and found them charming. There 
was a real mother there, and a father;. 


32 


MARY BROWN’S FRIENDS 

and there were three pleasant daughters*, 
and some delightful boys for brothers, toa 
young to even suggest embarrassing situ- 
ations. Moreover, there was a home at- 
mosphere which the lonely young woman 
next door recognized the first time she 
breathed it. She was fascinated, and, 
without in the least intending it, fairly 
tumbled into an intimacy that was de- 
lightful to her. 

In her secret soul she knew that the 
mother was more interesting to her than 
the daughters, .and that she should like 
to have her for her special friend; but 
that did not seem reasonable. The oldest 
daughter, just her age, claimed her as a 
matter of course, but was unselfish and 
cheerful in letting the others share, and 
they were all charming people. 

Not the least pleasant feature of the 
intimacy to Mary Brown was the delight- 
ful comradeship that sprang into life be- 
tween her and the high school and gram- 
mar school boys, — a friendship that was 
exceedingly helpful to her, and too much. 


33 - 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


could hardly be said as to its influence 
over the boys. 

Before she had realized what was going 
on, Miss Brown had accomplished that 
difficult thing on a city street, in an ex- 
clusive circle of which she was the un- 
willing centre, a next-door intimacy suf- 
ficiently pronounced for the “ running 
in ” stage, and the next-door people, 
thanks to her influence, were promptly 
in the centre of things. Perhaps they 
would have reached there promptly in any 
jcase, for they belonged to the class to 
whom it would have made little differ- 
ence, and such seem always to make their 
way. 

Just as Mary Brown, who had tried 
this time to be extremely careful, was 
beginning to let go all reserve and enjoy 
to the full the home she had borrowed, 
a cloud arose. “ The doctor ” was a 
name constantly referred to in the family, 
and Miss Brown, without asking any 
questions, had gathered that he was very 
much at home in their circle when he was 
on this side the water. She learned that 


34 


MAEY BROWN’S FRIENDS 

lie was a professor in the medical college 
of their own city, and that he was abroad 
for an indefinite time. 

One morning she had “ rnn in ” fo- 
plan a drive for the afternoon and had 
found them all in a state of hilarity over 
a just received letter, with the announce- 
ment that the doctor was coming home. 

“ Just think, Miss Brown! ” Alice, the 
high school girl, had said, “ he expects 
to sail very soon, — perhaps next week! 
And the last word we had from him was 
that he had almost decided to stay an- 
other year. I can’t think what has made 
him change his mind, unless it was be- 
cause I told him what we thought about 
you and — ” 

She stopped in utter confusion, and a 
chorus of laughter greeted her from the 
other sisters, followed by exclamations. 

“ You’re a nice child, Allie! ” “I 
think as much! ” “ Always cautioning 

us not to tell, and then doing it your- 
self! ” 

“ I haven’t told a thing! ” said the 
scarlet-faced Alice. 


35 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


* 1 No, but you will have to now, or Miss 
Brown will think it is something dreadful. 
I shall tell. It is Alice’s first effort at 
match-making, Miss Brown, and she has 
smothered Nettie and me in cautions not 
to mention it for the world.” 

“ Nonsense! ” said the girl. “ Don’t 
you believe them, Miss Brown; they are 
just trying to tease me. You can tell her 
all you want to, girls. I didn’t say a 
word more than you did, either; I shall 
tell her myself. It isn’t anything dread- 
ful, Miss Brown; only we all said that 
you were just the one person in the world 
that we had ever seen whom we thought 
Doctor would like, and I told him about 
you, how' dear you were, and how we all 
loved you and how we wished he would 
come home and — and — ’ ’ 

“ Love her, too! ” exploded Nettie in 
a fresh burst of laughter. “ Oh, Allie! 
what a goose you are! you’ve spoiled it 
all now.” 

Then Miss Brown had questioned in a 
puzzled way, letting her impressions come 
to the surface in doing so. She had 


36 


MARY BROWN’S FRIENDS 

thought that “ the doctor ” was at least 
a middle-aged, gray-haired man with 
spectacles and a family, and that he lived* 
in “ Professors’ Row ” with the others; 
There had followed a chorus of exclama- 
tions. 

4 4 Doctor an old man ! the idea ! ’ ’ 

44 Well, he hasn’t a family, by any means, 
except us; we are his family.” “ And 
he doesn’t live in any 4 Row,’ I can assure 
you; he lives with us.” 

44 Why, Doctor is only thirty; and he 
is just the same as our brother. His 
mother died before Nettie was born, when 
he was a little bit of a fellow; she was 
mamma’s dearest, sweetest sister, and 
mamma had him come right home 'to us, . 
and he has lived here ever since.” * 

4 4 He is only thirty, Miss Brown. That 
is what makes him so remarkable. He 
has become distinguished for medical re- 
search even so early in his career.” 

44 Allie is quoting from the medical' 
journal now,” the others said, and’ 
laughed. And Miss Brown had gone* 
Home presently, more dismayed than sha 
37 . 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


would have cared to have her adopted! 
family understand. Dismayed and dis- 
heartened; here was the end of all her 
newly found pleasant homelike times! 
With the advent of- a young doctor alb 
the delightful friendliness expressed by 
that “ run-in-at-any-time ” phrase would 1 
he over. She would have to be circum- 
spect and dignified and keep constantly in: 
memory not only the friendly neighbor- 
hood espionage, but the more careless one* 
of the watching outside world. Even the 
servants would be on the alert, curious to* 
see what sort of intimacy was established- 
between herself and this other, who, it 
seemed, was really one of the family. In 
short, she told herself with a weary sign,. 
“ he has spoiled it' all ! ” 

This conviction deepened’ as the days 
passed, and the interest in the speedy 
return of “ Doctor ” kept his name con- 
tinually at the front. Especially was that 
high school girl, Alice, a trial at this time. 
Having once divulged her eager secret 
that Doctor and Miss Brown had been 
created for each other, and that she was; 

3a 


MAKY BROWN’S FRIENDS 


to be the link in the connecting chain, she 1 
worked steadily at her task, ringing his; 
praises until the poor victim for whom 
they were especially intended grew to- 
fairly hate the sound of his name. She- 
began almost bitterly to resent his con- 
nection with this particular family. He 
had all the world beside, apparently; why 
could he not have left this one home to> 
her? She laughed, of course, over her' 
own folly, but nevertheless she was mis- 
erable. 

She spent a wretched night or two try- 
ing to plan a satisfactory outing for the* 
summer. It had included a month’s so- 
journ at a very quiet resort in company 
with the family next door, but that had i 
suddenly lost its charm. She could not 
include herself in that way, with the new 
member present, even had she desired to* 
do so. 

Matters were in this state when a note 
from her business agent and former 
guardian, concerning some of her recently 
acquired property, suddenly gave her a 
new suggestion, — she would go and see 
39 - 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMOST 


the little six-roomed cottage that had un- 
expectedly become hers; why not? She* 
could even stay in that vicinity some- 
where for a few days, perhaps, and plan 
what she would do next. At least this 
would enable her to get away from the* 
disappointments and questionings of that 
irrepressible Alice, the high school girl.. 
No sooner had the idea occurred to her 
than she settled upon it at once as a con- 
viction. There was something pathetic’ 
about the little possession. A nurse who* 
had served and loved her in childhood,, 
but had been lost sight of through these' 
Hater years, had recently died, and, being: 
without relatives, had left all her small; 
possession — a tiny furnished cottage — 
to Mary Brown, sole heiress of the mil- 
lionaire, Everett Thornton Brown, of 
Euston Square, and the child of her love* 
and care. 

At first the rich man’s daughter ex- 
claimed over her legacy in amused dis- 
may. What in the world was she to do* 
with a six-roomed cottage located in a 
little Western village many hundred 


40 


MARY BROWN’S FRIENDS 


miles from her home? Later, she had 
cried over the thought that one whom she 
had forgotten had remembered her all 
these years and loved her enough to leave 
her little all to her. She wished that she 
could have known about the love and real- 
ized it before there was nothing left but 
a grave. Then came the inspiration. 
Why should she not visit that grave and 
see that all outward respect, at least, was 
paid to the memory of Nurse Borland? 
Incidentally, she could also visit the six- 
roomed cottage. 

Such was the combination of circum- 
stances that had made Miss Brown a 
guest at the Circleville House, hundreds 
of miles away from her usual surround- 
ings, and from all who even knew of her. 

No, there was one other phase of the 
combination; there was something that 
she must decide. She could not settle it 
at home; at least it would not stay set- 
tled. Perhaps the atmosphere of Circle- 
ville, wherever that might be, would help 
to clear her vision. 

There was a certain Richard Wade, a 

41 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


friend of her girlhood, of her childhood 
indeed. He had seemed for years like one 
of her brothers, and been almost as much 
at home as they in her father’s house. 
If only he had been content to stay as her 
brother, how much less lonely her life 
might be. But Richard, who was just her 
age and had seemed much younger, had 
been away for two years and then had 
returned grown up! Some way he had 
discovered suddenly that he was not only 
a man with a man’s ideas and feelings, 
but that those feelings even to his inner- 
most heart were centred on his one-time 
playmate, Mary Brown. He was very 
positive and insistent; he not only knew 
that he loved her with all his soul, but 
was equally sure that she loved him. 
Why shouldn’t she? Hadn’t she always 
liked him better than any of her friends, 
— a great deal better? And there was 
no one else, was there? Well, then, what 
was the use? No matter if she did not 
realize that she had the right kind of 
feeling for him, that was nothing; he 
was not afraid; he had not realized it 


42 


THE BROWNS AT MTi SERMON 

himself until lately. But he knew now, 
both for himself and her. Once they were - 
married and the thing was settled for life, 
she would find out fast enough that ho 
was the only one in the world. 

She had felt compelled to laugh at the 
boyishness of this logic, and had re- 
minded him that once they were married 1 
it would be too late to do any finding out. 
But at that he had shown that he was 
man enough to suffer, and had convinced' 
her that he, at least, was in solemn ear- 
nest. And he had urged a speedy mar- 
riage with all the eloquence that he could’ 
muster, and had convinced her judgment 
that, once the decision were made, there 
would be no reason in delay. She was • 
alone in the world, and so was he, at least 
comparatively. He had brothers and a 
sister, but they were married and settled, 
“ and happy without me,” he had told her 
pathetically; and then she had realized! 
that he, too, was lonely. 

But she could not decide to marry him. 
There were nights when she went to sleep- 
at last under the conviction that it was. 


4'A 


MARY BROWN’S FRIENDS 


settled and she would be married as soom 
as he wished, — only to awaken in the* 
gray of the very early morning to renew 
the weary questionings. There were* 
times when she chafed under the re- 
straints of conventionalities. If Richard! 
were her brother they could make home^ 
together, and have as much of each other’s' 
society as they chose, and live their sepa- 
rate lives at the same time, as they chose.. 
Why could it not be so with friends? She* 
would like very well to pour Richard’s 
coffee for him, and chat with him, when- 
ever he chose to dine at home, and she* 
had no other engagement ; she could 5 
imagine an ideal life for them both. But 
to marry him, give up her name and time* 
and' individuality almost, as , she was sure* 
that people truly married did and were* 
glad to do, she shivered and shrank from* 
ft, and was sure that she and Richard 5 
were not for each other. And then he* 
would spend an eager evening with her,, 
tingling to his fingers’ ends with assur- 
ance and determination, and the argu- 
ments would be gone over again. She 


44 


MARY BROWN’S FRIENDS 


must get away from them, and from him. 
She must reach a decision that would 
bear daylight, and stay fixed. It was 
being cruel to Richard to vacillate so. 

\ This, after all, had been the real reason 
why she caught at the tiny cottage in 
Circle ville and took her sudden flight in 
that direction, not even hinting to Rich- 
ard that she was going. He was out of 
town for a few days, and this helped her 
in getting away. 

She had been gloomy during the jour- 
ney over the loss of her adopted family; 
for the more she thought about them in 
connection with “ the doctor,” the more 
sure she was that her enjoyment was 
over. And then she had been gloomy for 
another reason. It seemed strange, but 
as the separating miles increased between 
Richard Wade and herself, her inward 
vision seemed to clear; before she reached 
Circleville she had become almost certain 
once more -that she was not the woman 
'whom Richard ought to marry, and that 
she would not marry him. But with that 
strange inconsistency which sometimes 


45 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


harasses the human heart, the decision 
saddened her. She should in this way 
lose her friend, her lifelong friend and 
comrade and almost brother. Richard, at 
least, knew his own mind, and had not 
changed and would not, ' and they could 
never be again as they had been. She 
was sorry for him, and at the same time 
almost vexed with him. Things might 
have been so pleasant if he had not been 
foolish. She, it seemed, was not to have 
a friend of any kind. 

It was this dreary loneliness and sense 
of separation and loss that she had 
brought with her to Circleville. It was 
what had made the look on her face which 
had caused John Jackson to remark to 
his associate in the freight depot that he 
never see a young person before look so 
kind of lonesome and sad. He guessed 
she had lost friends lately, her mother, 
maybe; and then he had sighed. John 
Jackson was the young man who had 
lately buried his mother, to whom he had 
always been good, and who wanted to 
marry the other Mary Brown as soon as 
46 


MARY BROWN’S FRIENDS 

he could get “ forehanded ” enough. He 
told the other freight man that he was 
that sorry for the young woman that he 
had gone over with her to the hotel and 
carried her bag himself away up to her 
room, so she wouldn’t have to wait for 
that slow-poke of a Tim to do it. All this 
Mary Brown did not know. She did not 
even know that she had arrested the at- 
tention of John Jackson, and that he had 
been especially kind to her. But she knew 
that she was sad; and she believed that 
she had lost friends. 


47 


IV 

A NEW MISS BROWN 

Before the arrival of that remarkable 
letter, Miss Brown had spent a number 
of hours in the six-roomed cottage at Cir- 
cleville. 

She had found, first of all, a little old- 
fashioned garden aglow with old-fash- 
ioned flowers, — larkspurs and sweet-will- 
iams and balm and honeysuckle. She had 
loved them all the moment her eyes rested 
on them, and they were associated with 
Nurse Borland and happy childhood days. 
There had been a little old garden in the 
country where she and Nurse’ Borland 
spent some happy weeks the summer that 
father was ill and mother went abroad 
with him. Some of those very flowers 
were blooming in this garden ! Mary 
Brown, as she bent over them with a rush 
48 


A NEW MISS BROWN 

of tender memories dimming lier eyes, 
told herself that at least she would see 
to it that Nurse Borland’s grave should 
always glow with the flowers she had 
loved. 

She had gone carefully through the 
tiny house, examining with growing home- 
sickness and wistfulness every article of 
furniture. What a complete little house 
it was ! What a cunning dining-room, — 
old-fashioned braided rugs on the floor, 
old-fashioned high-backed chairs, an old- 
fashioned deep-leaved table covered with 
a heavy linen home-woven spread. A tiny 
corner closet stocked with old-fashioned 
blue dishes, willow pattern. Could any- 
thing be prettier or more complete? 

“ Dishes enough to serve meals for two, 
and even to have a guest,” she said, ga- 
zing wistfully up at them. “ If Nurse 
Borland could only have understood how 
much I should have enjoyed sitting with 
her at this table, drinking tea out of this 
blue cup! Why must things always come 
afterwards? ” 

She had lingered in the little house, 


49 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


unable to get away from the homelike 
place. She assured herself that, for some 
reason, it looked and felt more like home 
to her than any place that she had been 
in for years; and it was hers. If there 
were only another, sufficiently a kindred 
spirit, to be summoned to spend a few 
weeks with her in this little house, among 
those lovely rollicking flowers, she knew 
that she should like it better than any 
outing that could be planned. “ Two peo- 
ple/’ she had said again wistfully, as, 
having visited all the rooms, she reached 
the little dining-room again, and sat down 
by the two-leaved table to consider. She 
went over her circle of friends one by one, 
and dismissed them; none of them quite 
fitted in with the little house. She had 
locked the door at last, and pocketed the 
key. She had changed her mind about 
returning it to the agent; the house was 
hers and 'she had a right to the key, and 
a perfect right to keep the place unten- 
anted if she chose. She had a foolish lit- 
tle -feeling that she, should like to choose 
the tenants, and she smiled at her folly, 


50 


A NEW MISS BROWN 

and wondered what her business agent 
and sometime guardian would think of 
such an idea. He was not to hear of it, 
that was some comfort. Her folly had 
already been sufficiently impressed upon 
him in taking a long journey for the sole 
purpose of looking up so insignificant a 
bit of property as this. Of course the 
guardian was never to know about Rich- 
ard Wade and the decision that must be 
reached. No, that was reached. She had 
clear vision now. Just why, she coul<£ 
not have told, but as she sat before tl/at 
little dining-table and mentally set f;he 
blue willow patterned dishes in order ipr 
two, she became absolutely certain thaS; 
Richard Wade could never, never be the 
other one. And if not he, then nobody, 
of course, in that sense. She must be 
different from other girls. Well, one 
thing was certain, she should never marry 
unless she was sure beyond the shadow of 
a doubt that she could not live without 
that other one, and also that she could 
live with him. 

“ Always to have him seated opposite 
51 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


to one at table, for instance, three times 
a day,” she said to herself, and thought 
of Richard and shuddered. Certainly she 
was not like other girls, and could not 
help it, but could be honest. 

But the fancy to find a tenant for tli^t 
dear little six-roomed house stayed with 
her and colored her movements for the 
remainder of the day. Just how she was 
to accomplish it was by no means clear. 
It was of no use to run over her list of 
even nominal acquaintances for this; no 
maid servant of her employ or within her 
knowledge fitted into the place. She 
smiled at her folly and clung to it. 

Having spent a somewhat restless night 
at the Circleville Hotel, she was surprised 
to find in the morning that her interest in 
the little house was as keen as ever, and 
her desire to people it was even stronger. 
She would certainly withdraw it from the 
local agent’s hands, but there seemed to 
be nothing else that she could do. And 
then had come that interesting letter and 
the interesting interview connected with 
it, and now the remarkable decision. She 


52 


A NEW MISS BROWN 


would go to Mount Hennon, wherever 
that was, and become Mrs. Roberts’s 
“ handy young person,” who was willing 
to do whatever was wanted. 

“ What a lovely name! ” she said, lin- 
gering over the words. “ 6 Mount Her- 
mon, ’ — it makes one think of heaven. 
What if I should find a new atmosphere 
there! I have heard of summer meetings 
where people thought at least that they 
found something new. You need some- 
thing new, Mary Brown, entirely new. I 
approve of your decision to go in search 
of it. I wish I could settle the little house 
first. Wait! Why would not the other 
Mary Brown and my friend John Jackson 
be the ones to people it! He would do, 
I am sure, and it would help him to get 
‘ forehanded,’ but I must know the other 
Mary first, and there is not time now to 
make her acquaintance. It will not do to 
be later than the twelfth. When my sum- 
mer experience is over I will return here 
and give myself to setting up the Jackson 
family, perhaps.” 

She laughed at the folly of her own 
53 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


thoughts, a more gleeful laugh than was 
common to her. Already the feeling that 
she was about to become a new Mary 
Brown', one with whom she had not even 
a speaking acquaintance, had awakened 
her interest and energy. 

Visions of the trim “ second girl ” who 
did her housekeeper’s bidding in her city 
home, and always looked tastefully dressed 
in her neatly made, carefully laundered 
print dresses, roused this new Mary 
Brown’s ambition to emulate her and 
hastened her departure from Circleville 
that very afternoon. She determined to 
take a train at once for the nearest city 
and spend a few hours in replenishing her 
wardrobe, with Jessie the table waiter 
for a pattern. 

Moreover, a satisfactory letter must be 
written to her business agent, remember- 
ing always that he had been her guardian 
and was her father’s life-long friend, and 
that therefore explanations not strictly 
connected with business were his due. It 
took time and skill to write a satisfactory 
letter. How much could she tell without 


54 


A NEW MISS BROWN 

really telling anything? When the task 
was accomplished the letter read as fol- 
lows : 

‘ 1 My dear Guardian : — I had no 
trouble in finding the place or the cottage. 
It is in very good condition and needs no 
present attention of any kind. There is 
not, however, much opportunity for rent- 
ing it at present; this is a very quiet 
little village where the people, I fancy, 
rarely move. I should like to find some 
one who would like to live in it as a care- 
taker, and keep it in its present order in 
memory of my dear old nurse. I may he 
able to do something of that sort later. 

“ Meantime I have met friends who 
have changed all my summer plans. In- 
stead of coming home at once, as I had 
arranged, you will be surprised to hear 
that I am going to California. I am to 
be with a Mrs. Roberts, whom I do not 
think you have met. She summers at a 
charming place called Mount Hermon, in 
honor, I suppose, of the place of sacred 
memory bearing that name. It is said to 


55 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


be a delightful place for a summer home, 
the people chiefly living in tents, which, 
you will remember, is a hitherto ungrati- 
fied ambition of mine. I shall be able to 
tell you in the fall whether or not it is 
as delightful as I have imagined. Kindly 
forward my mail to the address which I 
shall enclose, and have the goodness not 
to mention my whereabouts too particu- 
larly to any of my acquaintances who are 
planning to cross the continent. Being 
in camp, I shall not be in condition to 
entertain them, and it might save my 
hostess some embarrassment if passing 
acquaintances do not find me too readily. 
You will understand the situation, I am 
sure.” 

“ I am sure you won’t! ” she told her- 
self gleefully as she signed and addressed 
the letter. “ What I mean is, that you 
will think you do.” 

She felt jubilant. The entirely new de- 
parture she had planned took hold of her 
imagination and enthusiasm. 

‘ ‘ I am actually running away ! ’ ’ she 


56 


A NEW MISS BROWN 


said, gaily. Not one of the people whom 
she dreaded would be likely to find her 
after that hint to her guardian. He knew 
very well that there were some from 
whom she would not even care to receive 
letters. As for Richard Wade, business 
called him to London for the summer, and 
he had wanted her to go with him! She 
drew a long, relieved breath over the 
thought that he could not follow her to 
California; then she looked serious over 
the letter she must write him. It was 
hard that she could not keep him for a 
friend, but she was afraid that she could 
not. Still, who could tell what this 
strange new summer might have in store 
for her? She might find a real friend. 

“If I do,” she told herself, “ I will 
bring her back to Nurse Borland’s cot- 
tage for October, and we two will drink 
tea together from Nurse Borland’s blue 
teacups. ’ ’ 

The journey started out in an auspi- 
cious manner. The young woman who 
had run away made herself ready for it 
so as to look as commonplace and uncon- 
57 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


spicuous as possible. At least she thought 
so. She had carried out her proposed 
programme to the letter, leaving Circle- 
ville by the late train and stopping at a 
little Western city two or three hours dis- 
tant, where she found the shops bril- 
liantly lighted ready to catch the tourist 
trade. 

This shopper had never realized, and 
did not at that time, how much her care- 
ful street toilet, with every garment of 
the richest yet most appropriate kind, had 
to do with the deference shown her by 
discerning salesmen and women. She did 
not at first understand the almost per- 
sistent determination of the bewildered 
clerks to show her only the richest and 
finest of their goods. At last she smiled 
on a bright-looking girl behind the notion 
counter and took her into semi-confidence. 

1 ‘ I am trying to fit out a young woman, 
a friend of mine who is going to work in 
a boarding-house this summer. It is at 
an outing camp in Northern California, 
and she has nothing whatever that is suit- 
able for such a place. She is just about 


A NEW MISS BROWN 


my size, and whatever will fit me would 
do nicely for her; I wonder if you would 
help me.” 

Yes, indeed, she would; she would like 
nothing better. After that, work went on 
swiftly. The young saleswoman brought 
her keen, well-trained wits to bear upon 
the subject, and became a most efficient 
ally. She flitted from counter to counter 
and from one department to another in 
eager desire to have this unknown and 
fortunate girl secure as complete an out- 
fit as possible. 

At first she was anxious. 

“ Oh, dear, yes,” she said. “ That 
dress would he lovely for her for after- 
noons when she had a chance to dress up ; 
but isn’t it too expensive? It is quite 
fine, you see. And she could get along 
without it, of course; because that pale 
blue one is a good afternoon dress, and 
it doesn’t cost half so much as this.” 

“ Oh, I think she will need this, too,” 
said the shopper, flushing over her igno- 
rance. The price of the dress in question 
seemed to her ridiculously low. “ There 
59 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


will be a good many people where she is 
going, and she will need to look neat all 
the time. It will take a number of dresses. 
Besides, she may have opportunity to 
attend some of the lectures.” Then, see- 
ing the puzzled, almost troubled look on 
her helper’s face, she had advanced a step 
in her confidences. 

4 4 I am fitting her out myself; she 
doesn’t have to pay any of the bills, and 
I want her to Jbe neatly and appropriately 
dressed all the time. I shall be glad to 
have you make any suggestions that occur 
to you.” 

The troubled face had cleared, and the 
response had been eager. “ Oh, all right, 
ma’am; I shall just love to help fit her 
out. Ain’t she a lucky girl, though? ” 

“Forward, Miss Brown,” a voice Jiad 
called from the lower counter, and the 
helper had made prompt answer: 

“ Miss Brown can’t! She’s awfully 
busy.” 

The shopper regarded her with added 
interest. Here was another “ Miss 
Brown.” “ And still another develop- 


60 


A NEW MISS BROWN 


ment of us, I think,” she told herself as 
she watched the movements of the alert, 
eager girl. 

“ If I should ever have that house 
party I am planning, I should like to have 
her come. I believe she could be made to 
fit in wherever she might be wanted. I 
wonder if her name is Mary.” 

But no, a girl at that moment caught 
at her dress with a hurried half-whisper : 
“ Say, Jennie, where’s the pattern coun- 
ter? I can’t find it.” She was Jennie 
Brown, then, — Jane. “ It might be 
Mary Jane,” the shopper told herself, 
and laughed. The girl laughed, too, in 
sympathy. She was having a good time. 

Later, while Miss Brown was studying 
over a suitable travelling wrap, the girl 
gave an undertone account of her unique 
experience to the girl at the rubber coun- 
ter. 

“I’m having an awfully jolly time! 
She is fitting out a girl to do summer 
work in a boarding-house at some swell 
camp, and the way she is piling on the 
clothes is a caution! I’d like to have her 


61 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


fit me out to get married! There will be 
an awful bill! but I don’t believe she will 
care; she looks as though she belonged 
to the kind that is used to them. I just 
wish I was the girl who was going to get 
the things, I know that! Do you suppose 
she is any relation to her, or just some 
one she is interested in? Say, don’t you 
wish she was interested in us? ” 

“ Where is this camp? ” the girl ven- 
tured to inquire at last, when she had 
given wise advice as to shoes and a sun 
hat and a sun umbrella. On being told, 
she dimpled with delighted surprise. 

4 4 Well, now, isn’t that the greatest! 
I’m going out there myself in September. 
I’m to have my three weeks’ vacation 
then, and a cousin of mine who is waiting 
on table up there for her room and board 
has got me the chance for September, 
because she is going back to college; my 
cousin is a college girl. I thought of her 
when you were talking about fitting out 
your friend for a summer camp; but 
land! I never dreamed that it was the 
same place. Don’t things happen queer 


62 


A NEW MISS BROWN 


sometimes? Perhaps I shall see your 
friend out there.” 

“ Perhaps so,” Miss Brown had said, 
but she had felt a trifle startled, and 
had offered no more confidences. The 
world was smaller than she had realized. 


63 


V 


FARMER BROWN 

On the morning of her second day of 
travel there came to occupy the seat be- 
side her a fragile woman with a sweet 
face that at once awakened interest. She 
dropped into the seat with a little sigh of 
relief. 

“ It is a comfort to me to find a seat 
with a lady,” she explained. “ The cars 
are crowded this morning, and I am so 
unaccustomed to taking care of myself 
that I am almost a coward alone. It 
makes a woman timid to be always cared 
for, don’t you think? ” 

Miss Brown smiled on her and ad- 
mitted that it must be very pleasant to 
travel with those whose right and pleas- 
ure it was to take care of one. 

“ Yes, indeed!” the lady said. She 

64 


FARMER BROWN 

* 

was almost sure to have husband or son 
along. 

“ My son,” she added, “ has taken care 
of his mother ever since he could talk ; 
but I am separated from him now for the 
first time. It is a critical time in a moth- 
er’s life when her boy goes to college.” 

Miss Brown smiled again, still sympa- 
thetically, as she owned she had always 
supposed that the critical time was for 
the son. The mother laughed. 

“ Yes,” she said. “ That is true; I 
feel it for him, of course. We both do, 
his* father more than I, I think. It is 
harder for fathers to trust their boys 
than it is for mothers. I wonder if that 
is because they understand the world bet- 
ter than we women do ? I find I have the 
utmost confidence in my Kendall’s ulti- 
mate future, even though the intermedi- 
ate steps are not all that we could wish. 
You are right in calling it a critical time 
in a boy’s life. At home, Kendall never 
gave us an hour’s uneasiness. I beg your 
pardon for beginning to talk about him ; ’ 
it is a foolish way we mothers have. 


65 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


Still, I do not often mention him to a 
stranger. I could not help having a fancy 
as soon as I looked at you that you were 
a good friend to the boys; truly good, I 
mean. Don’t you think that is about as 
important work as young women can find 
to do, to be true friends to boys away 
from home? ” 

Mary Brown was strangely moved. 
When a girl of twenty she had had a boy 
brother to whom she had been 11 good.” 
He had gone away from her like all the 
others of her family, and her voice had 
trembled as she said: 

“ I am sure of it. I had a dear brother 
once, and I know.” 

“ And he is gone? Dear friend, for- 
give me.” 

“It is five years since he died,” Miss 
Brown said, amazed at herself for her 
lack of self-control before this stranger. 
She knew that her eyes had filled with 
tears, and some explanation seemed neces- 
sary. “ I am all alone in the world,” she 
said tremulously, “ and I am sometimes 
very lonely.” 


66 


FARMER BROWN 


“ Poor child! ” it was the mother-tone, 
soft and tender. Then a delicately gloved 
hand was laid on her arm. 

“ I’ll tell yon, dear, it is given to you, 
perhaps, to help other young brothers. 
They need the impress of a good woman’s 
friendship upon their lives. All boys need 
it, and sensitive, highly organized, manly 
boys, full of life and fun, need it most 
of all. If I were a young woman I would 
try hard to help them to an intimate 
friendship with the Lord Christ. They 
are lonely, too, these boys away from 
home, and often homesick ; it is what 
leads them into all kinds of follies mis- 
named ‘ fun.’ If they had a special 
friend always with them, one who was 
superior to folly and whose respect they 
coveted, think how it would shield them! 
And Christian girls could held them to 
realize that the man Jesus would be just 
such a friend. If our Kendall could only 
be led to feel that, his father would be 
at ease about him.” 

Then came the conductor and a conver- 
sation about tickets and changes and con- 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


nections. When he had passed, the lady 
laid that delicate hand on Miss Brown’s 
arm again. 

. My dear, strange things happen in 
this world of ours; we call them chance, 
but the older we grow, and the more in- 
timately we know our Father, the more 
sure we are that nothing ever chances. 
Do you know I had a feeling, from the 
first moment of seeing you, that you were 
to be one of the influences to touch my 
boy’s life? I don’t know how, but God 
does. When you gave the conductor your 
ticket I saw the name, and you are going 
to within a few miles of Carmen College, 
where my boy is ! If you meet him I 
know you will be good to him. His name 
is Browning, Kendall Browning. This 
next station is mine. Good-by, dear, God 
bless you.” 

In a moment, with a bright little smile 
and a parting bow, she was gone, leaving 
Mary Brown with the feeling that she 
had met and parted from a dear friend; 
leaving her also with a new and grave 
sense of responsibility. 

68 


FARMER BROWN 


When she stepped, a few hours later, 
from the platform of the train and looked 
about her at the station indicated on her 
ticket, it was with a vivid remembrance 
that she was now to become a new person 
in every sense of the word. She was to 
enter upon an untried life and assume 
duties that were utterly strange to her. 
But her interest in the experiment had 
by no means waned; on the contrary, she 
courted, rather than shrank from the new 
experiences. First, she must give herself 
to the business of finding Mrs. Harriet 
Roberts. 

“ Mrs. Roberts/’ repeated an elderly 
man who seemed to be standing about 
for the purpose of giving information. 

4 4 Oh, she is up on the hill where the 
meetings are. You going up on the hill? 
They mostly do; but it’s pretty all around 
here. ’ ’ 

The latter part of this sentence was evi- 
dently’ called forth by the look on the 
young woman’s face as her beauty-loving 
eyes caught glimpses of wooded hill and 


69 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


deep ravine and winding river and flashed 
her appreciation of them. 

“ Is that Mount Hermon! ” she asked, 
indicating a peak that glowed in the sun- 
light. 

“ Well, it’s all Mount Hermon, ma’am, 
all about here. That’s the name the new 
folks gave it. They’ve got a fine place, 
and no mistake. Four hundred acres of 
as pretty country as can be found in the 
State ; and if you are acquainted with the 
State of California, you know that is say- 
ing a good deal. The beauty of this place 
is the water. Spring water, ma’am, every- 
where; four of the finest springs to be 
found anywhere; and that witch of a 
Zayante River acts as though it was 
alive! I never saw the beat of the way 
it scurries around.” 

Miss Brown laughed amusedly. 

“ You make a very good advertising 
agent,” she said, pleasantly. “ And you 
certainly seem to have a good subject; it 
looks very lovely everywhere. 

The man echoed her laugh. “ Well, I 
ain’t employed to advertise it,” he said, 


70 


FARMER BROWN 


good-naturedly, “ and I don’t own a foot 
of land about bere and don’t expect to, 
— though T should like mighty well to buy 
a lot for my little girl, while they are 
cheap ; it stands to reason that they won ’t 
stay so long; but I know a good thing 
when I see it, and I can’t help admiring 
the folks that have taken hold here, and 
liking the thing they are trying to do. I 
live back here a ways on a little farm; 
I’ve lived there all my life and I’ve seen 
lots of tourists and things about here, 
admiring the beauty and drinking the 
water, and all that, but I never see one 
of them who cared to take any trouble to 
do things for other folks, till these came 
along. ’ ’ 

“ And you think these are really doing 
it for other folks? ” 

“ Looks like it, ma’am. I’ve looked on 
a good deal since this thing begun, and 
I drive over here to the meetings every 
chance I can get, find I don’t know what 
other motive they could have for the 
things they are doing; and whether that’s 
the object or not, they are doing it all 
71 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


right. IVe got a lot of help from it, al- 
ready, and so has my wife and my little 
girl. IVe got an extra good little girl; 
Libby, her name is, Libby Brown. I’m 
going to bring her over to the meetings 
all I can. You’re waiting for a carriage 
out to Mrs. Roberts’s place, I suppose? 
It will be along pretty soon, I reckon; 
they’re late this morning. Things are 
new here, you know, and they ain’t as 
they will be in another year or two. 
There’s the rig now, coming around the 
curve. It’s a mighty nice fellow who is 
driving it; his name is BroVn, too, but 
he isn’t any relation of mine; he is one 
of Mrs. Roberts’s boarders.” 

The historian paused to gaze medita- 
tively at his audience and mildly wonder 
what he had said to call forth such an 
outburst of laughter. In truth, Mary 
Brown felt almost hysterical over this 
rapid increase of the Brown family. She 
tried to check her mirth lest the feelings 
of the kind old farmer might be hurt; 
hut he was continuing his introductions. 

“ I dunno as he is exactly a boarder, 


72 


FARMER BROWN 


either. I guess he is paying his way do- 
ing work. They do that kind of thing a 
good deal here; students, you know. It’s 
a great place for students; you see it 
ain’t a regular camp-meeting at all, 
though there are meetings enough, and 
grand ones, too; but they study a good 
deal, and have Bible classes, and other 
kinds of classes, and everything is up to 
date and scholarly. I heard Doctor Wel- 
don say myself that there were as schol- 
arly a set of men as we have in the coun- 
try up here at work at Mount Hermon; 
and he is the president of Carmen Col- 
lege. 

“ This Mr. Brown ain’t a student, ' 
though, he is a carpenter. I thought he 
came out here to get work, but he stayed 
right on after he found that he would 
have to wait awhile; there will be lots 
of work for carpenters when the meetings 
close, but they don’t allow hammering 
and sawing and things of that kind much 
now, for fear of disturbing the meetings. 

I guess he is going to wait, and get a 
chance at some of the new houses that 


73 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


will go up this fall; he shows good sense, 
too, for there’s a lot of them. So I guess 
he is part paying his way by working, 
and going to the meetings between times. 
He looks like a real forehanded man, too, 
and I don ’t quite make him out. But 
then, a thrifty man might have ways of 
spending his money that he liked better 
than paying his board with it, when he 
could earn it as well as not. I see him 
working around at Mrs. Roberts’s some- 
times, when I go there; and I guess she 
is mighty glad to have him; help is ter- 
rible scarce- about here. Anyhow, what- 
ever he is, he is a grand good man, and 
folks like him first-rate. 

“ Hello, Mr. Brown! you are late this 
morning. The train has been gone as 
much as ten minutes.” 

The young man thus addressed brought 
his horses around the curve with skilful 
hand, and alighted before he made an- 
swer. 

“ Late, am I! I told Jonas that we 
should be; he was late with the horses. 


74 


FARMER BROWN 


Have yon seen any passengers waiting 
for me, Mr. Brown? ” 

The passenger thought that he sur- 
veyed her with a doubtful, not to say dis- 
appointed, air. 

“ Only one? ” he said, looking up and 
down the road. “ That is very trying. 
We were expecting a Miss Brown at our 
house this morning.’’ 

“ Miss Brown, eh? Relation of yours, 
Mr. Brown? Not your wife now! ” 

“ No, my wife didn’t come this sum- 
mer; but I am very sorry that the young 
woman didn ’t, she is needed. Hurst, ’ ’ rais- 
ing his voice and addressing the station 
agent, “ when is the next through train 
from the South due? The passenger we 
are looking for comes through from Cir- 
cleville. ’ ’ 

Thus reinforced, the waiting passenger 
decided to speak. “ I am from Circle- 
ville, and I am expected at Mrs. Roberts’s 
to-day. ’ ’ 

The driver turned and surveyed her in 
evident bewilderment. 

“ I beg your pardon. You are ex- 
75 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


pected, did you say? Your name is 
not — ” 

“ My name is Mary Brown,” she said 
with dignity. “ Can you take my trunk? ” 
‘ ‘ I beg your pardon, ’ ’ said the driver 
again; but he did not say for what. In- 
stead, he gave business-like attention to 
the neat trunk containing the new ward- 
robe, and in an incredibly short space of 
time they were making excellent speed 
around the valley road toward the wind- 
ing mountain drive. The farmer, left 
to himself and speechless with surprise, 
gazed after them in silence until the 
winding road led them out of sight. Then 
he found his voice again. 

“ I’ll be swamped if she ain’t another 
Brown ! What a lot of us ! and how 
mighty different we all are! 99 

The drive was a pleasant one. Miss 
Brown, after due consideration, decided 
not to be too dignified. Had she not the 
old gentleman’s word for it that this was 
a “ grand good man? 99 Besides, wasn’t 
his name Brown, and wouldn’t he have to 
be included among the guests when she 
76 


FARMER BROWN 


made that house party at Euston Square? 
She had nearly laughed over the thought 
of what an acquisition the old farmer 
would be to the house party ; but she- 
remembered in time. A certain amount 
of dignity was indispensable for Mrs. 
Roberts ’s maid. Perhaps she ought not 
to converse with this man at all, being a 
maid. She felt that she was not posted 
as to the rules of etiquette governing the 
conduct of a housemaid with a carpenter. 
Still, he ought to know, “ and he began 
it,” she assured herself with a little in- 
ward laugh. 

His manner was entirely respectful and 
at the same time friendly. He pointed 
out objects of interest along the way, and 
told her just what she wanted to know. 

“ That is the trail to the Sulphur 
Springs ; it is a charming walk on a warm 
day; winds about in the most romantic 
fashion possible, and brings up at last in 
a charming spot for a picnic.” 

“ And the spring, is it really sulphur? ” 

“ Very much so. If you are not abso- 
lutely sure of it before tasting, you will 
77 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


have no need to question after the first 
mouthful. Most people are very fond of 
it, but my tastes do not happen to lie in 
that direction. Look yonder at the view 
we get! This is typical California sce- 
nery all about here, but the views that 
spring themselves upon us as we round 
the curves are what one by no means 
finds every day.” 

Miss Brown was .gazing at the trees. 

“ What are those lovely graceful ones 
sprinkled in among the others? ” she 
asked. “ The young lithe one with tender 
leaves and a look of having been freshly 
made for us. I know the redwoods, sim- 
ply from reading of them, but these are 
new.” 

“ They are the madrones,” he said, 
giving her a look under the cover of her 
absorption that expressed surprise as well 
as curiosity. This was not the way in 
which he had supposed that Mrs. Rob- 
erts’s maid would express herself. 

“ They are favorite trees here,” he 
said, “ and the management proposes to 
guard them carefully from vandal hands 
78 


FARMER BROWN 


and let them grow in their own wild 
beauty without too much cultivation. 
They have a regularly organized Board 
of Forestry, one object of which, I fancy, 
is to keep down any rising tendencies 
toward the artificial. Madame Nature 
may safely be trusted here, at least, to 
manage her own affairs.” 

He was trying to draw her out; but 
Mary Brown had already remembered the 
supposed proprieties. The madrones had 
caught her off guard for a moment, but 
they should not again, let them wave their 
graceful branches ever so luringly. 


79 


VI 


MR. BROWN 

Mrs. Roberts was puzzled, and also 
troubled. She spread her perplexities be- 
fore Mr. Brown, who shelled peas for her 
on the back porch, and listened. 

She had but a short time before ex- 
plained to Miss Helen Lawrence, who was 
not only a summer but a winter boarder 
of hers, and therefore entitled to confi- 
dences, that it was just three weeks to 
a day since she first laid eyes on Mr. 
Brown, and yet he seemed like an old and 
tried friend. 

“ I don’t know why it is,” she said, 
meditatively. “ Seems queer. I’m not 
one that makes friends so very easy. 
Why, you know that I’ve had men with 
me right through the year that I would 
no more think of speaking to, except to 
80 


MR. BROWN 


ask what they would have and how they 
would like it, and things of that kind, 
than I would of flying! but Mr. Brown 
has got a way with him, somehow, that 
makes you feel different. He is just as 
respectful as he can be, and yet he is so 
kind of interested in your work and your 
ways and everything, and so ready to 
help you out in a perplexity, that before 
you know it you have told him all about 
it. I never saw quite such a man in my 
life. If I had a boy like him, or if Ai- 
leen should ever marry a man anything 
like him I should be tickled to death/’ 

“ Which is the very last thing that 
Aileen will ever do! ” the permanent 
boarder said, but she had the grace to 
say it to herself, while aloud she ad- 
mitted that Mr. Brown was certainly very 
“ nice,” and for a mechanic really re- 
markable. 

“ I don’t know what to make of the 
girl, and that’s the truth! ” Mrs. Roberts 
confided to the sheller of peas. “ To tell 
the downright truth I’m half scared over 
her, and have been from the first minute 


81 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


that I laid eyes on her. Yon see, she 
doesn’t look nor act as I thought she 
would, not the least mite in the world. 
Sometimes, instead of telling her to set 
the table, I feel as though I ought to ask 
her whether she likes her roast rare, or 
well done, and if her room is comfortable. 
She looks like a lady, and that’s the 
truth! and what I needed was a good, 
capable working girl.” 

“ Doesn’t she do her work well, Mrs. 
Roberts? ” The questioner’s face was 
grave, and his tone had almost a note of 
anxiety. 

“ Yes, she does.” Mrs. Roberts stayed 
her busy fingers for a moment, and gazed 
perplexedly at him while she talked. 

“ She does it first-rate, everything I 
give her, every identical thing, no matter 
how dirty the work may be. She is as 
neat as a pin, too, and quick-motioned 
and good-natured. She doesn’t find a bit 
of fault, and she doesn’t slam around and 
look like a thunder-cloud as some of the 
silent ones do; there isn’t a single, soli- 
tary thing on which I can lay my finger 


MR. BROWN 


and say: ‘ That isn’t right.’ And yet, 
for all that, I’m puzzled and troubled. 
There is something queer about her. 

“ There’s some things I can’t set her 
at. I can’t tell her to wash down the 
back stairs and scrub up the kitchen floor 
any more than I could tell the President’s 
wife! and that’s the truth.” 

The sheller of peas laughed apprecia- 
tively. 

“ I shall have to do such things for 
you, Mrs. Roberts,” he said. 

“ You! ” she gave him a swift admir- 
ing glance. Then, after a moment, “ I’d 
about as soon ask you as that girl! She 
ain’t used to working out any more than 
my Aileen is. Well, for that matter, she 
said she wasn’t; she doesn’t make any 
pretence of knowing how to do some 
things. But what I mean is, she ain’t 
used to working. Her hands — did you 
ever notice her hands, Mr. Brown ? Why, 
they are as soft as a baby’s! and white 
and plump! As pretty hands as ever I 
saw. They have never done any hard 
work in her mother’s kitchen, nor any- 

*83 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


where else. And yet, she doesn’t look like 
the kind of girl that sits in the parlor and 
thumps on one of those tin-pan-pianos, 
while her mother does the work ; now 
does she? ” 

Mr. Brown seemed to have no reply 
ready, and after a moment’s waiting Mrs. 
Roberts, with a depressed sigh, closed as 
she had begun, with: “ I don’t know 
what to make of her, and that’s the 
truth.” 

There was silence on the back porch for 
several minutes, and the business of pea- 
shelling went on briskly. Then Mr. Brown 
came to the rescue. 

“ Would you like to hear my theory, 
Mrs. Roberts? I think your new maid 
may he one of those young women who 
are becoming more and more common in 
our country, who have managed to secure 
a fair amount of education, owing to our 
public school system and our excellent 
normal schools and State colleges, and 
have become teachers in country schools. 
My namesake may have wanted to travel 
a little, and see portions of the country 
84 


MR. BROWN 


she has read of and taught others about. 
This place affords an unusual opportu- 
nity, you know, not only for enjoying 
California climate and scenery, but for 
hearing good music and fine lectures. 
For people interested in Bible study its 
advantages are peculiarly rich. I fancy 
that your Miss Brown, being a sensible 
young woman, decided to enjoy the ad- 
vantages here and pay for them in part 
with work that she felt sure she could do, 
saying nothing about her personal af- 
fairs.” 

Mrs. Roberts’s hands paused again for 
a moment while she regarded her helper 
with admiration and respect. 

“ You do beat all for straightening 
things out! ” she said. 4 4 That sounds 
real common sense and probable. She 
isn’t any of the common sort; I knew 
that as soon as I laid eyes on her; and 
I told Aileen last night that she had 
proved already that I was right. She has 
a real good education, I guess; anyhow 
the books she has brought with her look 


85 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


like it; and your explanation of it all just 
fits. 

“ But still, Mr. Brown, education 
doesn’t always work that way. Don’t 
you think it is apt to set people up above 
doing housework, or associating with 
those that do it, out of their own houses'? 
There’s my Aileen, as smart as a whip; 
she was the best scholar in high school 
and had all the honors when she gradu- 
ated. And she is as good a girl as ever 
breathed, and kind-hearted, and all that; 
but still, when I was puzzling what to do 
with Mary nights, — I had it all fixed 
before she came, but as soon as I set eyes 
on her it seemed kind of too bad, some 
way, to put her into the same little tent 
with Irish Mary, and I hinted to Aileen 
that perhaps she might have a cot in her 
little tent; you know she has that scrap 
of a tent next to the big one all to her- 
self. Well, you ought to have heard the 
child! ‘ Mother! ’ she said, ‘ mother! ’ 
just like that.” And Mrs. Roberts’s voice 
was the embodiment of astonished ex- 
postulation. “ ‘ Our servant girl room 


86 


MR. BROWN 


with me! I don’t see how you could bear 
to say such a thing.’ ” 

The listener was conscious of a distinct 
pause in his thoughts, and a general feel- 
ing of dismay. This was a phase of the 
strenuous life he believed the new young 
woman to be leading, that had not before 
occurred to him. Miss Brown a room- 
mate of Irish Mary! But when he spoke 
his voice was the voice of a casual lis- 
tener. 

“ What did you do about it, Mrs. Rob- 
erts? ” 

“ Oh, there wasn’t but one thing I 
could do; I had to put her in there with 
Maryann. I gave her a cot to herself, 
though, and it took a lot of fussing and 
contriving to do even that. I did it after 
she got here. But she has been just as 
nice about the sleeping as she has about 
everything else. All she asked for was a 
sheet that she could hang up across the 
corner and make a little privacy, she said; 
so I gave her some red curtains that T 
brought out with me and hadn’t needed to 
use, and she has rigged up the cutest lit- 
87 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


tie room behind those curtains! It is a 
dreadful pity that you can’t have a peek 
at it! She has fastened some pictures to 
the sides of the tent, and even over the 
top; and hung up some fancy bags, and 
pinned up wall-pockets for all sorts of 
things, and — well, I tell Aileen that it has 
got an air about it that she couldn’t put 
into her room to save her life. I’m dread- 
fully sorry for her, though, to think that 
it’s the best I can do. Maryann is real 
neat, and she’s kind, and is tickled to 
pieces to have the girl there; but still, 
when I see her starting out to her tent 
with Maryann, I feel as though I ought 
to have a parlor bedroom, with lace cur- 
tains and things, to offer her. I don’t 
know why I feel that way, either. She 
doesn’t dress a bit nicer than Maryann, 
in fact she is not so fine when Maryann 
gets fixed up of an afternoon, but yet 
there is a dreadful difference between 
them. I suppose you know what I mean, 
Mr. Brown, though I can’t put it into 
words. I’ve often noticed that you didn’t 
seem to need words all the time. 


88 


MR. BROWN 


“ What is it makes the difference in 
people, anyway? There, for instance, 
is Silas Potter and yon. Both of you are 
builders, and you both understand your 
business, I suppose. Silas does ; there 
isn’t a better workman in town, they say. 
But you and Si are about as much alike 
as Miss Brown and our Maryann, and no 
more! So it isn’t the kind of work peo- 
ple do that makes the difference. I don’t 
know what it is, but I can feel it. You 
know there are a good many things that 
you can feel, but you can’t explain them. 
Still, I’ll own that you never seem to me 
just like a builder. Not but what it is 
splendid business; and master builders, 
as they call them, almost always get rich. 
I suppose you are a master builder? ” 

His reply was quick and emphatic. 

“ Oh, no, no, indeed; I make no claim 
to be a master in anything; I am just a 
common workman.” 

Mrs. Roberts gave him another swift 
admiring glance. 

“ That will do for you to say,” with a 
sage nod of her head, “ but all the same 


89 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


I shouldn’t be afraid to set you at a big 
bouse, and when my ship comes in and 
I build the kind of bouse that my Aileen 
wants, I shall send for you.” 

He thanked her merrily, and assured 
her that he should try to live up to the 
high opinion she had of him. 

4 4 But about this young woman,” he 
broke off from his laugh to say. “ I have 
been wondering if she is not perhaps one 
of those opportunities of which you and 
I were speaking a few mornings ago. 
May it not be that she has come out here 
to find her Master, and may he not see 
that you are the one to help her? ” 

The face of the middle-aged woman 
changed suddenly, and expressed a yearn- 
ing wistfulness. This busy, tired woman, 
who had so little time for her spiritual 
needs that, while she ministered daily to 
the physical wants of her boarders, she 
felt sometimes that her soul was starving; 
it was so rare a thing to come in contact 
with a boarder who seemed to know that 
she had a soul. In truth, this peculiar 
young carpenter was the only one she 
90 


MR. BROWN 


could remember through the years who 
spoke to her naturally and simply of the 
inner life. Yet she knew and loved the 
Lord Christ; and there were times when 
she yearned after closer fellowship with 
and definite service for him. She did not 
remember how this boarder had found it 
out ; he had seemed to take it for granted. 

“ You mean that perhaps she isn’t a 
Christian? I don’t suppose she is. Help 
isn’t, generally. I don’t know why, I am 
sure; but I don’t believe I ever had a 
girl in the kitchen who was. Do you sup- 
pose she would like to go to the day meet- 
ings some? I calculate to plan to let her 
go nights if she wants to, and once in 
awhile of afternoons, when there are 
extra doings, but mornings — I don’t 
know — ” The shrewd and somewhat 
hard look of the professional boarding- 
house keeper flashed into the expressive 
face and she spoke quickly. 

“ You see, Mr. Brown, it ain’t play- 
time with me, summers, as it is with the 
rest of you, not by a long sight ! For that 
matter, I’ve never found out yet when my 
9r 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


playtime came. IVe not only got to earn 
enough to support three of us and educate 
Aileen, but there is the interest on my 
everlasting mortgage to keep up. I 
couldn’t help thinking of it yesterday, 
when Doctor Brandon was talking so 
beautifully about the “ things that re- 
main,” I said to myself: 4 I guess IVe 
got one thing that will stick to me to the 
end of time, my time, anyhow, and that’s 
my mortgage.” 

Her listener laughed appreciatively, 
and asked one or two questions about the 
town house and the mortgage, then drew 
her back to the subject in hand. 

“ Of course, Mrs. Roberts, your work 
must be done; I fully realize that; you 
may not be able to spare the young 
woman often, perhaps not at all, in the 
morning; I am only thinking that if you 
could, at any time, bring her with you to 
that morning meetiiig, it might appear 
that the Master had planned through 
such a service to bring a joy into your 
life that would remain after time is done 
with. ’ ’ 


92 


MR. BROWN 


The hard look passed, and the wistful 
one returned and deepened. 

“ That’s true, Mr. Brown. You have 
a way of making a body remember that 
there’s something besides planning break- 
fasts and dinners and suppers year in and 
year out. I’ll try for it. There isn’t much 
that I can • plan even to try to do, but 
I’ll plan for this, see if I don’t. I can’t 
bring her to the morning meetings, be- 
cause we couldn’t both get away once in 
an age, but I could spare her to go for 
an hour ’most every morning, if I tried; 
because breakfast would be well over, and 
the rush for dinner wouldn’t be com- 
menced, and so, if she could be got to go, 
why, there’s the chance. I’ll do it.” 

Mrs. Roberts had not only tried to plan, 
but had planned. But the wistful look 
deepened and the tone melted into tender 
anxiety. N 

4 4 Mr. Brown, I was thinking if we 
could, if anybody could manage to coax 
my Aileen to go to some of those meet- 
ings — ’ ’ 

66 Yes,” said Mr. Brown, heartily. “ I 

93 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 

understand; we must try, for that, Mrs. 
Roberts, and keep trying.’ ’ 

But as he dropped the last popped pod 
into its basket and went his way, he gave 
a sympathetic sigh over the mother’s 
plea. 

The butterflies, at that moment flitting 
gaily among the vines, seemed to him 
almost as likely to elect to attend those 
morning meetings for Bible study and 
' prayer as was the pretty eighteen-year- 
old daughter of his hostess, whose bright 
head was crowded with aims and hopes 
that were utterly foreign to such environ- 
ment. He had said that they must try, 
and keep trying, and it had been no idle 
word. This man was no idler in his Mas- 
ter’s vineyard; he felt that he had made 
the mother a pledge, he would be sure 
to keep it ; . and though no way opened 
to his mind toward accomplishment, it 
might be that the Master had ways that 
would be made clear to him. 

Of one thing he was sure; Mrs. Roberts 
would try to help Mary Brown. 


94 


VII 


MARY BROWN AS A PROBLEM 

Meantime Mary Brown was having 
what, in its earlier stages, she had named 
the frolic of her life. Even her small 
tent-room shared with Irish Mary hacl not 
seriously troubled her. It was to be for 
such a very little while, she told herself, 
and thought of the suite of rooms wait- 
ing for her at Euston Square. After a 
day or two she became wonderfully in- 
terested in that tent-room. The red cur- 
tains sacrificed by Mrs. Roberts served 
for purposes of decoration, as well as 
walls, and the possibilities of a few empty 
cracker boxes, a roll of fancy paper, and 
some bright cord were revelations, and 
fascinated the city-bred girl accustomed 
to having all the modern conveniences at 
hand without giving them a thought. She 
95 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


became skilful in contriving ways and 
means by which she could live comfort- 
ably in her contracted quarters. She 
even found herself lying awake at night 
planning some new form of towel-rack or 
clothes closet, and gave all her leisure to 
the business of getting settled, with such 
success as to astonish and delight not only 
her roommate, Maryann, but Mrs. Rob- 
erts as well. 

The roommate herself proved not to 
be such an impossibility as she had at 
first seemed. To be sure, she was hardly 
a roommate, with those ample red cur- 
tains dividing them, but of course she was 
always within hearing, and one had a 
sense of never being utterly alone. Still, 
she was cleanly and good-natured and, 
what was better, genuinely good-hearted. 
She was even disposed to be respectful 
toward this “ regular hired help,” as 
Miss Brown overheard her explaining to 
the errand boy that the newcomer was. 
From' the first she had recognized a cer- 
tain something in the new help which 
made her say instinctively “ Miss Mary ” 
96 


I 


MARY BROWN AS A PROBLEM 


as readily as she said “ Miss Aileen.” 
So even Irish Mary became* a subject for 
study and steadily increasing interest. 

As for the life about her, outside her 
tent, each day’s experience was fraught 
with new surprises and interests. The 
company of pretty girls, gathered to 
serve, was as unique, she told herself, as 
were everything and everybody connected 
with this new world. Were they an en- 
tirely different class of beings from any 
that she had before known, or was it sim- 
ply the point of view! 

She had not for a long time held inti- 
mate relations with college girls. She 
had been graduated five years before, 
and since that time had only hovered 
around the outside edges of college life, 
being pointed out to the freshmen as 
“ Everett Thornton Brown’s daughter.” 
“ She lives on Euston Square, you know, 
where the swellest people in town are,” 
was the bit of slang used to describe and 
dismiss her from their world. 

Oh, she was called upon for “ advice,” 
for suggestions, for subscriptions. She 
97 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


was constantly being referred to as one 
of the “ patrons ’ T of this and that func- 
tion, and she was used to being deferred 
to as one whose lightest hints were 
freighted with power; but she understood 
only too well that this was because she 
was the sole representative now of her 
father’s wealth; and the inner circle of 
college life, when the girls sat on the 
sides of their beds and couches, and 
curled in the window-seats, and dropped 
in carelessly graceful heaps of bloom and 
color about the floor, and chatted and 
laughed, and threw couch pillows at one 
another on occasion for emphasis, and 
sometimes, as the shadows deepened, grew 
tender and confidential, — from all such 
circles she had been long shut out. 

At first the situation in Mrs. Roberts’s 
dining-room puzzled the newcomer. They 
were a bright, merry, winsome set, those 
college or high school girls who were serv 7 
ing as table waiters; her heart went out 
to them at once, but their attitude toward 
her she distinctly recognized as peculiar. 

She was olde~ than they, yet not so 


98 


MAEY BROWN AS A PROBLEM 


much older that it defined a marked dif- 
ference between them, but she felt, rather 
than saw, that they realized a difference. 
Not that one of them was rude to her, — 
they were very far from that, — they dis- 
tinctly welcomed her. When they gath- 
ered at the rustic bridge, or under one 
of the great trees, or on the beautifully 
shaded dining-room porch for a few min- 
utes’ chat before their table duties began, 
if she chanced to appear, they carefully 
made a place for her, not only in the cir- 
cle but the conversation. Setting aside 
college, or at least school themes which 
in one form or other were often on their 
tongues, they made haste to introduce 
some topic in which human beings in gen- 
eral might be supposed to take interest. 

This was certainly kind, but it was very 
unlike any attention that she had ever 
before received. Veiled under all the 
kindness, which was steady and uniform, 
there was a touch, or just a hint, rather, 
of condescension, of patronage, and Thorn- 
ton Everett Brown’s daughter had never 
in her life before been patronized. 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


It was not that they meant to patron- 
ize, or realized that they were doing so, 
it was rather that they distinctly made 
the effort to place her, instead of taking 
her, as they did the others, as a matter 
of course. 

When the explanation of all this dawned 
upon Mary Brown, she was alone on her 
couch at night, and she caught her breath 
with a little exclamatory sound, and then 
laughed so hard that she shook the couch; 
and Maryann on the other side of the red 
curtains laughed softly in sympathy, and 
wondered what the fun was. She would 
not for the world have laughed aloud, 
because of a certain delicacy of heart that 
Irish Mary possessed, which kept her 
from intruding on the other woman’s 
privacy even by laughter. 

“ They are being good to me! ” said 
Mary Brown to her astonished self. 
“ Those dear girls! they are trying to 
make me feel at home among them; they 
will not talk about the social functions 
of college life, or even about class work 
and study, lest I feel left out! And by 
100 


MARY BROWN AS A PROBLEM 


the same token they cease talking about 
the parties they have attended, or • the 
great singers and speakers they have 
heard or hope to hear, whenever I appear 
in sight! I understand them now, the 
darlings ! That explains the whole matter, 
and it is too good ! Did we girls at Wells 
ever think of such things, I wonder? 
such delicate and delicious bits of unselfish- 
ness, ever in our lives? Would we have 
done it if we had? To the utmost of 
their ability, or, rather, what they sup- 
pose to be my ability, they have taken me 
in! They are darlings, every one of 
them ! Oh, Mary Brown, are you sure 
that you deserve such friendship as this? 
How many people that environment 
seemed to have arranged should be your 
inferiors have you gone out of your way 
to make feel at home and happy? 

‘ ‘ What an extraordinary world it is ! 
What really makes society distinctions, 
after all? Not money, certainly. It is 
hardly presumable that girls who give 
faithful and really hard service for cer- 
tain hours each day of their vacation, in 
101 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


return for board and lodging, have much 
money to spare. Moreover, their pretty 
things, though really pretty and in excel- 
lent taste, are very inexpensive and show 
marks of home talent. Oh, no, it isn’t 
money. Let us be thankful for so much; 
that would really be too humiliating ! 
And yet, after all, in a dim, not under- 
stood way, isn’t money at the root of it, 
I wonder? These schoolgirls on vacation, 
helping for a few weeks to meet expenses 
by the labor of their hands, and I, sup- 
posedly, a girl who has to earn her living 
all the time in these ways. I give more 
hours than they, and have wages counted 
out to me in hard silver dollars such as 
they use in this country, with perhaps a 
gleam of gold, if I stay long enough, — I 
wonder how it will feel in my hand, the 
first money I ever earned! But the fact 
that I receive it, and expect to do so, and 
am supposed to continue doing so, settles 
my society status, apparently. What a 
remarkable distinction! Is it presumably 
caused because it is not conceivable by 
the average person that hired help can 
102 


MAEY BROWN AS A PROBLEM 


be other than uncultured and ignorant? 
I wonder how it is with carpenters; do 
they also belong to the masses? ’• And 
she thought of Mr. Brown; but this time 
she did not laugh. The strange unfair- 
ness of social distinctions was just begin- 
ning to dawn upon her. True, she had 
read and studied them before, but it 
chanced that they had never in any way 
touched her so that she stopped to apply 
them to individual cases. In this demo- 
cratic country, where work was univer- 
sally recognized as a blessing, why should 
foolish distinctions be made between work 
and work? Some employments must of 
necessity be more interesting and more 
important than others. A teacher, for 
instance, ought perhaps to be more care- 
fully selected than a cook; though one 
must eat in order to teach, and it was 
becoming increasingly understood that 
what both teacher and pupil ate was very 
important; still, making all the conces- 
sions necessary to the relative importance 
of the two occupations, why should that 
have anything whatever to do with one’s 


103 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


social positions? Were not present dis- 
tinctions false and degrading? 

“ Perhaps it is a question of brains 
versus hands/ ’ she told herself, and 
laughed. “ But that will not do, either; 
for since I came here to make use of my 
hands I am sure that I have exercised the 
gray matter of my brain more continu- 
ously than I have for years! ” 

Although in her thought she was being 
half-whimsical, there was a complacent 
side to it; she knew that she had con- 
quered. 

When she had first undertaken the set- 
ting of those innocent little tables scat- 
tered over Mrs. Roberts’s large dining- 
room, it had seemed to her that, so far 
as learning the art was concerned, it 
would be mere child’s play; any one could 
set a table. But she soon learned that 
the marshalling into place of knives and 
forks and spoons and salts and salads 
and salad plates and bread-and-butter 
plates and soup plates and dessert plates 
and all the other kinds of plates, and the 
whole bewildering array that went to make 

104 


MARY BROWN AS A PROBLEM 

the sum total of a single well-appointed 
dinner-table, required not only deft fin- 
gers but well-disciplined brains, trained 
not only to rapid thinking in consecutive 
lines, but in multitudinous cross-lines. 

After the second day’s effort she was 
almost in despair. Try as she would to 
make a single table perfect, there were 
either table mats or salad forks or indi- 
vidual butters or some other equally im- 
portant trifles that were missing. 

But following swiftly on the heels of 
despair came a firm resolve to conquer; 
and bringing the same resolute will to 
bear upon it that had carried the college 
girl triumphantly through difficult prob- 
lems in Euclid, of course she succeeded. 
The day came when those confusing little 
tables were solved problems to her. She 
could not only set her own number swiftly 
and faultlessly, but she could detect with 
one swift glance the defects in those next 
to hers and offer a friendly hint to the 
hurried and puzzled fellow worker. Mrs. 
Roberts looked on well pleased, but even 
more puzzled than she had been at first. 


105 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


This new girl, without other experience' 
in housework than her mother’s kitchen 
had afforded, was becoming practically 
her head waiter, the one of all others to 
be depended upon; and the college girls 
had discovered it and asked her advice 
and deferred to her judgment. Indeed 
Mrs. Roberts discovered in herself, with 
her forty years of experience, a tendency 
toward finding out what Mary thought of 
a new plan before adopting it. 

She confided her perplexities to her one 
confidential boarder, Mr. Brown, while he 
hulled berries for her on the side porch. 

“ That new girl of mine does beat all! 
I’m more and more puzzled to make her 
out every day of my life, and that’s the 
truth. 

“ She’s got more conveniences and con- 
trivances behind those red curtains of 
mine than I could think of in a lifetime. 
If I can only hang on to her for next win- 
ter I’ll get her to fix up some of my rooms 
in town. I ’most believe I should like to 
have her kind of go in with me and take 
hold and look after things generally. I 


106 


MARY BROWN AS A PROBLEM 


believe I could pay off that everlasting 
mortgage, if she would. I mean to make 
her a real good offer in the fall, if she 
holds out, and I know she will. ,, 

Mr. Brown dropped his berries into the 
dish with a thoughtful air. “ Have you 
said anything to her about her winter 
plans! ” he asked, at last. 

“ No, I haven’t; and to tell the truth 
I’m kind of scared to begin it. I feel in 
my bones, somehow, that she will say she 
can’t stay; and yet I don’t know why. 
I could do better by her than teaching, I 
believe. You see she works with her 
brains, and so I could afford to pay her 
more than I could any other help. And 
. she likely has to pay her board. She told 
me her father and mother were dead and 
she was alone in the world; and so I 
shnuld think she would rather go in with 
me than not. She seems to like me real 
well, and Aileen is growing fond of her 
in spite of herself. She didn’t mean to 
have anything to do with her because she 
was a servant; but I guess she can’t help 
it, there can’t any of us. So I believe I 
107 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


will try it as soon as I can get my cour- 
age up. But there! if she was to tell me 
that she had made up her mind to go over 
to London and spend the winter with her 
friend the queen, I don’t know as I would 
be astonished. She’s got such an air 
about her, somehow, that — I can ’t de- 
scribe it, and I can’t account for it.” 

Mr. Brown had no answer ready. He 
perfectly understood the good woman, 
and had puzzled over the very problems 
which were bewildering her. 


108 


VIII 


MISS bbown’s bewilderments 

\ 

On the second morning after this con- 
versation, Mr. Brown, who was watching 
for late comers, to provide them with 
seats and hymn-books, handed an open 
book to Mary Brown and indicated a 
vacant chair. When his duties were over 
he took the chair next to hers. 

She sat beside him during the hour, 
dignified and decorous. She found the 
hymns announced and followed the words 
with her eyes, and bowed her head at 
prayer time, and apparently listened in- 
tently to the Bible lesson. Neither by 
word nor glance did she betray the fact 
that she was in a new world. 

To people not familiar with society life 
in great cities it might seem almost in- 
credible that this young woman of twenty- 
109 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


♦ six, belonging to a nominally Christian 
family, had never in her life before at- 
tended a social prayer-meeting that was 
conducted somewhat after the manner of 
a family gathering. The truth was that 
Mary Brown had rarely been to a relig- 
ions meeting of any kind on a week day. 
The Lenten services had never appealed 
to her when the gay and worldly family 
were together, and since she had been 
alone no force of early habit had drawn 
her there. 

Once a day on pleasant Sabbaths, when 
nothing occurred to prevent, it had been 
her custom to attend the church service; 
and certain solemn words and phrases 
were as familiar to her as the roll of the 
great organ, and meant about the same 
thing. 

As she sat outwardly quiet in that 
strange Mount Hermon meeting, she rec- 
ollected that the words : 4 4 Have mercy on 
us miserable sinners,’ ’ had been often on 
her lips, but it had never occurred to her 
that she was praying. The people about 
her seemed to be having an interview 
no 


MISS BROWN’S BEWILDERMENTS 


witli God! As for the singing, she had 
never given heed to the words that the 
vested choir .poured forth in a volume of 
exquisite harmony. They said words, of 
course, but they might have been in an 
unknown tongue for all that she had 
heard or tried to hear of them. But the 
hymn that these people were singing as 
she entered the room sounded almost ir- 
reverent in its directness and plain-spok- 
enness. Was it quite right, she wondered, 
to he so familiar with the Deity? She 
turned to the page and read again the 
refrain that had first met her ears : 

“ Saved and kept, O the glorious word ! 

Saved and kept by a wonderful Lord ! 

He who was dead, and is risen from the grave, 
Lives, and is able to keep and to save.” 

These people rang out the words exult- 
antly; it was not possible to believe that 
they did not feel what they were singing, 
and yet — what extraordinary claims they 
made ! 

“ Saved and kept by the power divine, 

Saved to the uttermost, Jesus is mine! 

He is redemption and righteousness too, 

Trusting in him all my life is made new.” 

Ill 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


She stole curious glances now and again 
at the people about her; they had sung 
as though they were sure of its truth. 
“ Life made new,” Mary Brown in the 
loneliness of her room had used those 
very words. “ I need to have my life 
made all over new! ” she had said aloud 
to herself in dreariness. “ This life I am 
living is worn threadbare.” Yet she had 
not for a moment thought that such mak- 
ing over could ever he. 

“ It was good to be there, was it not? ” 
It was Mr. Brown who said these words, 
simply, as though they expressed a com- 
monplace with which she would of course 
agree. They were going from the meet- 
ing; he had glanced back to see who was 
coming, and had waited for her. She re- 
garded him curiously and made an unex- 
pected reply: 

“ I don’t know. Was it! ” 

“ To me, yes,” he said, smiling. “ I 
hoped it was to every one present.” 

She had not meant to talk to him, but 
a desire to understand became imperative. 


112 


MISS BROWN’S BEWILDERMENTS 

“ Wliat was there about it that was 
good? ” she asked, almost brusquely. 

“ Everything; the Lord was there.” 

She made an impatient movement. “ I 
don’t know what you mean,” she said. 
“ Isn’t he everywhere? ” 

“ Ah, hut I mean in the sense of 
fellowship, of course, and communion. 
‘ Where two or three are gathered,’ is 
the promise, you know.” 

She did not know; Bible promises, even 
such frequently quoted ones as these, 
were not familiar to her. But she made 
no reply. She had already told this man 
that she did not know what he meant; 
if he chose to insist that she did, there 
was nothing more to be said. She turned 
at the intersecting street, and made her 
way to the little department store, intent 
on Mrs. Roberts’s errands. But as she 
hurried over the trail, for once her eyes 
were blind to the beauties of fern and 
lichen and dainty wild flowers spread with 
lavish hand. She was making the trying 
discovery that by taking a leap from her 
known world, she had by no means left 


113 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


behind her dissatisfaction and unrest. 
Never had she been more thoroughly dis- 
satisfied with herself than at this moment. 
The morning meeting which she had at- 
tended solely to please Mrs. Roberts, who 
wanted to be kind to her, had emphasized 
the thought which had been growing on 
her for several days that these people 
among whom she had come spoke and 
prayed a language that she did not un- 
derstand. They referred in an . entirely 
matter-of-course way to experiences that 
she had not supposed sane people in these 
days believed in as possible. They seemed 
also to have a motive for living and a 
companionship in living that was not only 
altogether unknown to her, but seemed to 
her almost like sacrilege ! yet it gave them 
glad, quiet faces and they were living 
strong, glad lives. Mary Thornton Brown 
of Euston Square knew no such living 
and was jealous over it. Take that morn- 
ing meeting, of which Mr. Brown thought 
so highly, as an example. She felt almost 
impatient over the praying; it had given 
her a feeling more akin to homesickness 


114 


MISS BROWN’S BEWILDERMENTS 


than any she had felt since she left the 
great Eastern city. Not homesick for 
Euston Square and the conventional life 
she lived there, oh, no, indeed! but that 
deep and desolate unrest which had 
haunted her ever since graves had closed 
over all that meant home to her, had 
seemed to be accentuated by the atmos- 
phere of prayer she had breathed that 
morning. She would not go again, she 
told herself impatiently, not if Mrs. Rob- 
erts went down on her knees to her ; she 
could not afford to have this, experiment 
of hers spoiled by the strange talk of a 
company of visionary enthusiasts. She 
would send Mrs. Roberts in her place, 
perhaps she was one of them and could 
understand their flights. She laughed at 
her own folly as she made this decision. 
Mrs. Roberts visionary! the most practi- 
cal and matter-of-fact business woman 
with whom she had ever come in contact! 
Still, it was Mrs. Roberts who had as- 
sured her that those morning meetings 
gave her a “ lift, somehow,” for all day. 


115 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 

Very well, then, she should get her “ lift,” 
Mary Brown had no use for it. 

Yet the next morning she was in her 
seat near the door, open hymn-book in 
hand. Mrs. Roberts had been so earnest 
in her appeal that the young woman could 
not get the consent of herself to disap- 
point her. 

But she was sorry that - she came. It 
was even worse than it had been the day 
before. The hymn they were singing of- 
fended her; the refrain seemed imperti- 
nent. 

“ No one can help you but Jesus, 

For no one but Jesus knows how ; 

He sees all the past, and the future, 

And just what the trouble is now.” 

4 ‘ Mere doggerel ! ’ ’ she told herself an- 
grily; both words and tune calculated to 
put poetry and harmony to the blush. It 
was incredible that such stuff could move 
people! Then what was moving her? 
For as the refrain was repeated softly, 
tenderly : 

“ He sees all the past, and the future, 

And just what is troubling you now,” 

116 


MISS BROWN’S BEWILDERMENTS 


there came such a sense of desolation, of 
longing as almost overwhelmed her. Oh, 
to be for a single hour with One who 
knew “ all the past and the future,” and 
could tell her how to order her life! Did 
they have such fellowship, these people? 
Why should they? It was absurd to sup- 
pose it;’ had she not been with religious 
people all her life? yet she had never 
heard anything like this. It must be the 
familiarity of ignorance. But that was 
folly. Men and women about her by the 
score were of the class that to think of as 
ignorant or uncultured was not only an 
impertinence but arrant nonsense. And 
the leaders among them were men upon 
whom the stamp of scholarship was un- 
mistakable. 

She went home in a turmoil and told 
herself that Mrs. Roberts need do no 
more sacrificing for her. To this resolu- 
tion she held stoutly for a week, and then, 
touched by the unmistakable earnestness 
of the plea that she would go just once 
more and see how it would hearten her 
up. 


117 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 

“ Did you ever hear Mr. Brown pray! ” 
the good woman said, beaming on her un- 
willing maid as she slowly removed the 
great work-apron that had completely 
covered her neat dress. “ If you haven ’t 
you’ve missed a good deal. I just hope 
he will pray this morning. There is some- 
thing kind of strange about that man’s 
prayers. I don’t know as I can describe 
them; it isn’t the words, exactly, — it 
isn’t anything that can be described, but 
— well, you just wait till you hear him 
and you will understand.” 

And Mr. Brown prayed, but Mrs. Rob- 
erts’s maid had not understood and had 
felt more bewildered than before. 

“ You spoke just as though you were 
a son having an interview with his fa- 
ther! ” 

This was the sentence which greeted 
his ears as he joined her at the door. 
There was disapproval in her tones, and 
Mr. Brown, taken by surprise, did not at 
first understand. 

“ When? ” he asked. 


118 


MISS BROWN’S BEWILDERMENTS 


Just now, a moment ago, when you 
spoke. ’ ’ 

“ Oh, when I prayed, do you mean? 
Well, wasn’t that precisely the situa- 
tion? ” 

11 No,” she could not help speaking al- 
most irritably. “ That is sentiment, of 
course, or poetry; I don’t know what you 
name it. I like real things.” 

“ I beg your pardon, my friend. I 
have no thought of being poetical. There 
is nothing more real in life to me than 
personal communion with my Father in 
heaven. If I could not be certain of this, 
prayer, to me, would degenerate into mere 
form, and phrases in common use would 
be only solemn mockery.” 

“ That is what they seemed to me to 
be much of the time.” 

“ But that is because you do not know 
your Father in the way that it is your 
privilege to know him. At least — am I 
wrong in inferring that you are not a 
Christian? ” 

“ I am a church-member, if that is what 
you mean.” 


119 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


“ It is not precisely. It is true the 
terms ought to he synonymous, but I fear 
they are not. I have known church-mem- 
bers who seemed to have no more idea 
of what communion with God as a Father, 
or companionship with Jesus Christ as a 
present Saviour, meant than if they had 
never heard the terms; but a religion of 
that kind would not satisfy me. n 

Nor had it ever satisfied Mary Brown. 
She discovered that she had a feeling of 
almost resentment toward those who 
seemed to have found something satisfy- 
ing which she had not. She told herself 
that she was glad of an interruption, as 
some one came up just then to claim Mr. 
Brown for a business matter. She wished 
she had not said what she did. It would 
give him an excuse to talk some more 
of his bewildering fanaticism. That is 
just what these people were, fanatics. 
But, oh, was not fanaticism worth while 
if it satisfied? 

All her life, or at least all her grown-up 
life, Mary Brown knew that she had been 
dissatisfied with life as it shaped itself 


120 


AT A SOCIAL FUNCTION 

for her. Its frivolities and parades and 
insincerities had repelled her from the 
first. Although her mother had been a 
fashionable woman, she had also been 
home-loving, and mother and daughter to- 
gether had escaped from the fashionable 
‘ whirl as often as they could, and hid them- 
selves in the family circle. When that 
circle was broken suddenly, ruthlessly, 
and one after another of its members 
were snatched away with appalling swift- 
ness, leaving her, presently, alone, the 
desolation that at first seemed to engulf 
her like a flood had been fearful. 

When at last she struggled back to 
something like a shore, and took up life 
again, naturally it had a greater distaste 
for her than ever before, and the aversion 
grew with her years. She knew that one 
strong, pushing motive in suddenly plan- 
ning this strange holiday had been the 
hope that in simpler surroundings, among 
quiet people who lived for something be- 
sides society, she might find relief. 

But she resented the air of mystery 
about her. These people, the plainest as 
121 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HEKMON 


well as the most cultivated, seemed to 
breathe an atmosphere which she did not 
understand and could not assimilate. 
Even Mrs. Roberts, that hard-worked 
woman, who had evidently spent her life 
in a daily struggle with ways and means, 
and who had a spectre of pecuniary fail- 
ure ever at her elbow, had nevertheless 
hours when she closed her eyes to the 
spectre, laid aside her perplexities, forgot 
her annoyances and breathed in peace of 
soul and strength for future effort from 
these very meetings which so bewildered 
her maid servant. 

Still, she need not have said: ‘ ' even 
Mrs. Roberts/ ’ The truth was that that 
good woman was one of her daily puz- 
zles. She had never before come in con- 
tact with a character like hers. A woman 
shrewd by nature and by education; quick 
to see a bargain and eager to take advan- 
tage of any turn in market values. Her 
keen brain penetrated through disguises 
and shams of ever kind, and her vigilant 
eyes and ready tongue were the terror of 
all crooked tradesmen, whether they dealt 


122 


MISS BROWN’S BEWILDERMENTS 


in large ripe berries on top and half- 
grown ones underneath, or tried to sell 
her fresh vegetables three or four days 
old. She was herself scrupulously honest 
and just, and she required honesty and 
justice from those with whom she dealt. 
But she was much more than that. She 
had daily petty frets and annoyances. 
What with delays and broken promises 
and careless workers and troublesome 
boarders, and the inevitable breakages 
and spillings and forgettings that belong 
especially to a country boarding-house, 
where many of the ordinary conveniences 
have to be represented by clumsy substi- 
tutes or done without altogether, she had 
enough on any single day, in the language 
of Irish Mary, to “ provoke the tongue of 
the blissed Virgin herself.” 

Yet this woman, with whose quick brain 
and ready tongue went naturally a quick 
temper and sharp, stabbing words, con- 
trolled herself even under strong provo- 
cation and spoke not only without sharp- 
ness but with actual pity for the culprits; 
and made constant patient effort to order 
123 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 

her house so that life would be pleasanter 
for them. 

Clearly there was no ordinary solution 
to the mystery which surrounded her. 


124 


IX 


MISS BROWN AT A SOCIAL FUNCTION 

Lida Brownson was standing on the 
porch steps of the dining-hall, waiting 
for Mary Brown to appear from her tent. 

Lida was a leading spirit among the 
dining-room girls, and one who had made 
very cordial advances toward the out- 
sider. 

She ran down the steps to meet her, 
calling out merrily: 

“ Are you all prinked, ready for the 
fray? ” Then, as she gave a swift glance 
at the trim figure in a fresh white apron 
and with hair and hands in exquisite 
order, she added: 

“You look as though you might be 
going to a party instead. How do you 
contrive to make a white apron so effect- 
ive? Yours isn’t a bit more furbelowed 


125 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


than mine, but the air it takes on is some- 
thing to envy. I’ve been waiting for 
you, ’ ’ she added, linking her arm in 
Mary’s and sauntering with her down the 
long piazza with an air of comradeship. 

u We are going to have a meeting all 
our own this afternoon, we girls, right 
here on the porch. Won’t that be unique! 
And we want you to come. We are plan- 
ning for a lovely time.” 

“ What kind of a meeting! ” Mary 
Brown asked in an interested tone, try- 
ing not to show that she was also amused. 
Nothing connected with her very unique 
experiences interested this young woman 
more than the hearty way in which these 
girls worked at making her one with 
themselves. They were being continually 
handicapped, she knew, because of her 
supposed ignorance of all things con- 
nected with their world, yet they strug- 
gled bravely. 

“ Oh, just a talking meeting; very in- 
formal, of course, being here on the porch 
it would have to be informal. After it 
is over we are going to serve refresh- 
126 


AT A SOCIAL FUNCTION 

ments. Won’t that be an original con- 
clusion to a religious meeting? ” 

“ Oh, is it a religious meeting? 99 
“ Well', I suppose it might be called so. 
At least I hope we shall not be irrelig- 
ious! 99 with a winsome little laugh. 
“ You know we girls don’t get a chance 
to attend the eleven o’clock meetings, nor 
the earlier ones very often, and we 

thought we would like one of our very 

own. Some of the older ladies are com- 
ing to help us. Mrs. Rhyse, for one. 

Have you met her? She is charming; 
just home from Japan and other inter- 
esting places where she went to visit mis- 
sion fields • she is a delightful talker ; 
knows all about those far-away places, 
and a good many other matters. I am 
sure you will enjoy her. Then there are 
to be several others, and our own Faye 
Willis, of course, who is always a host 
in herself. Don’t you think she is lovely? 
You will come, won’t you? ” 

Mary Brown’s first impulse was to 
plead letters to write; she was disposed 
to shrink from any more religious meet- 
127 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


ings; but the evident anxiety in Lida 
Brownson’s eyes made her hesitate. Af- 
ter all, why should she stay in her tent 
to write a letter to Richard Wade, a try- 
ing letter, which would exhaust all her 
nervous energy, instead of meeting half- 
way this interesting girl’s evident effort 
to do her good! She gave the coveted 
promise, and laughed over it in her tent 
that afternoon, while she exchanged her 
plain collar for a more dressy one, and 
made one or two little additions to her 
toilet. 

“ This is only a semi-religious meet- 
ing,” she told herself, “ sandwiched with 
refreshments ! I ought to go to discover 
how they manage things of this sort.” 

The scene was new and strange to her. 
The bright-faced young women in pretty 
summer attire fluttering about on the 
long leaf-shaded porch with the ever- 
present sunshine filtering in among the 
branches. It was a very cheerful — she 
had almost said merry — company, with 
nothing about them in voice or speech to 
suggest what Mary Brown had been in 


128 


AT A SOCIAL FUNCTION 


the habit of calling reverence; yet they 
certainly did not suggest irreverence ; 
they were simply glad, with a gladness 
that ever and anon bubbled over into 
laughter. 

“ Is this a good time, or a religious 
meeting? ” queried one of the younger 
girls, just after having indulged in an 
appreciative giggle over some bright ' re- 
tort. Lida Brownson answered her 
quickly: “ It is a good time and a re- 
ligious meeting, my dear; I object to the 
‘ or ’ in your question. Don’t disconnect 
good times and religion, please; neither 
is worth much if they are of such a na- 
ture that they can’t be put together.” 

Over this remark Mary Brown pon- 
dered; it, also, was new to her. 

Yet it undoubtedly was a religious 
meeting, though not of the stereotyped 
kind; the young people talked as infor- 
mally and with as little embarrassment 
as though it were simply a social func- 
tion. But the topics which they intro- 
duced .were as surprising to her as all 
the rest. 


129 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


“ Mrs. Rhyse,” s t aid one, turning to the 
missionary traveller, “ Alice Upton ac- 
cuses you of saying that Japanese Chris- 
tians are more satisfactory *than those at 
home' Did you say so? And if you did, 
tell us why, please. Isn’t it a reflection 
upon our great and glorious country? ” 

“ Perhaps it is, dear,” said the genial 
and much-travelled lady, “ but the truth 
has to be spoken sometimes, you know, 
even though it jars. As to the ‘ Why,’ 
I think one reason is because they have 
a way of taking things for granted that 
we puzzled over. They believe, you see, 
just what the Bible says, and act accord- 
ingly. ’ ’ 

“ Oh, Mrs. Rhyse! Don’t we? ” 

“ Not always, I am afraid. We fuss a 
great deal over matters that with them 
are foregone conclusions, because, as they 
read the Bible, it has left no room for 
discussion. ’ ’ 

“ Perhaps,” said one of the girl with 
a sigh, “it is because we have so many 
unsettling things to think about that do 
not disturb them. I don’t suppose, for 


130 


AT A SOCIAL FUNCTION 


instance, that the amusement question is 
forever popping up there to be consid- 
ered, as it is with us. I’m sure I think 
it is the most perplexing of all our ques- 
tions.” 

This remark caused Mary Brown’s 
mental vision to be more distinctly on 
the alert. What had the amusement 
question — if it had a question — to do 
with religion? What did the next speaker 
mean? 

She was a tall fair girl with soft full 
eyes that had possibilities of trouble hid- 
den behind their depths. 

“ Why need we keep questioning? ” 
she asked. “ Why can’t we just float 
along with the current and let things 
go? ” 

Lida Brownson was sitting beside her, 
and at this word she laid a cool, firm 
hand over the, girl’s as she said gently: 

“ You know, Allie dear, what the boats 
do when they float with the current; they 
keep going down-stream all the while. 
Would you like that, in your Christian 
life? ” 


131 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


The girl sitting opposite answered for 
her, speaking with energy: 

“ I don’t, I know; but it exactly ex- 
presses my experience. I am floating 
down- stream. Mrs. Rhyse, what is the 
matter when one is distinctly conscious 
of losing ground and doesn’t want to do 
it? ” 

“ A general diagnosis hardly answers 
for this disease, my dear ; individual 
cases have to be studied. Suppose we 
see how many present can give us hints, 
either from experience or observation! 
Who will give the first word? ” • 

It was Lida Brown son again. 

“ I think we float down-stream rather 
fast when we keep doing something that 
we more than half believe is doubtful, 
but we don’t want to take time to settle 
it once for all.” 

“ So do I,” said another with empha- 
sis. “ I have done just that thing, and 
I know.” 

“ Well, but, — there are so many sides 
' to a subject to be considered.” It was 
the tall fair girl again. 11 There, for in- 

132 


AT A SOCIAL FUNCTION 


stance, is one’s influence over others. 
Suppose one had a brother or a friend,” 
— the flush on her cheek deepened as she 
hesitatingly spoke the word, — ‘ 4 who was 
fond of the theatre, and wanted you to 
go with him to perfectly unobjectionable 
plays, and felt that you were narrow and 
selfish and all that if you wouldn’t go, 
and you knew that you were likely to lose 
what influence you had by refusing him. 
Isn’t that a difficult side to consider! ” 

Mrs. Ehyse smiled. “ At least it is a 
side that is always being considered,” she 
said. “ I am wondering how many there 
are here who have already been called 
upon to give it more or less thought and 
experiment. ’ ’ 

To Mary Brown’s surprise more than 
a score of hands answered her. 

“ May I ask two more questions! ” she 
said. “ First, who ha$ a word of encour- 
agement for us in a story of one who 
seemed to have been helped by the sort 
of compromise which Miss Alice’s ques- 
tion suggests! ” 

Not a hand responded; instead, there 

133 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


were grave shakings of one or two heads, 
and several of the girls exchanged mean- 
ing smiles. 

“ This is significant, ’ ’ said Mrs. Rhyse. 
“ Think what it tells ns. There are at 
least twenty-five young women here who 
reported that they had given thought to 
this matter, and it is fair to infer that 
they have experimented more or less, yet 
no one has a triumph to record, nor, ap- 
parently, an encouraging word. Now for 
the other question : How many of you 
have conversed with young men and 
young women who were not Christians 
themselves, but who were very sure that 
Christians who indulge in the popular 
amusements of the day are inconsistent 
with their religious professions? ” 

“ Oh! * ’ said Faye Willis, “ shall we 
put up both hands to stand for a multi- 
tude of experiences'? It is simply star- 
tling to find out how sure they all are of 
that, — when one gets down to real opin- 
ions, — even those who at first try to 
make you change your base and not allow 
yourself to be 1 narrow.’ ” As she spoke, 


134 


AT A SOCIAL FUNCTION 


she lifted both hands, and a number of 
others, half laughing, followed her lead. 

“It is a very unanimous vote,” said 
Faye, looking down the line. 4 ‘ I wonder 
if it answers your question, Allief ” 

“ At least I cannot bring any testimony 
against the verdict,” the girl said, trying 
to smile, but she looked troubled, and her 
admission seemed to be made reluctantly. 

And then, to Mary Brown’s disappoint- 
ment, the talk flowed into other channels. 
She had been more than interested; her 
astonishment was great. These girls with 
their extraordinary experiences were be- 
wildering. Why should they not attend 
the theatre as often as they chose! Of 
course there were plays that no self-re- 
specting woman wanted to hear or see, — 
and being an honest young woman, she 
frankly admitted to herself that there 
were many such, — she even, on thinking 
further, added that among most of the 
favourites there were portions that might 
well be omitted, but such wholesale con- 
demnation as these people were giving 
was ridiculous. 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


When she again gave attention to the 
circle, the topic was the social dance. 
But here Miss Brown was in sympathy 
with the most advanced “ narrowness.’ ’ 
She had not lived in the fashionable 
world for a dozen years or more, without 
discovering the offensive side of this pop- 
ular amusement, and without having to 
do with young girls, the bloom of whose 
maidenhood had been sullied by its in- 
fluence. “ If this can be said of girls,” 
she had asked herself early in her ex- 
perience, “ what must one familiar with 
fashionable society admit with regard to 
men? ” It is true that she had never 
thought of this subject in connection with 
religion, and she told herself now that 
she did not understand what that word 
had to do with it; there was certainly 
enough to be said on the score of refine- 
ment and morality. 

“ But the square dances are only prom- 
enades,” one girl was saying, defensively, 
when she began again to give heed. 

“ But the waltzes are something more,” 
added Lida Brownson, quickly. 

136 


AT A SOCIAL FUNCTION 


“ Oh, I don’t waltz,” said the girl, 
“ and I think a certain kind of dancing 
tolerated in our set is simply disgusting, 
but still, to condemn them all — ” 

u We were speaking of our influence, 
my dear,” said Mrs. Rhyse, gently. “ If 
you confine yourself to the unexception- 
able dances, and to the perfectly unex- 
ceptionable persons for your associates, 
where will your influence be quoted when 
the subject is up for discussion in other 
circles than yours! Is the line between 
the kinds so distinctly drawn and so well 
understood that even the young and 
thoughtless will make no mistake as to 
your position! ” 

“ Oh, dear! ” said the girl in a serio- 
comic tone. “ I know what you think, 
and I almost know that I am wrong; but 
isn’t it a dreadful bore to have to be al- 
ways thinking about those silly weak- 
minded other people, who cannot stand 
on their own principles, but are always 
toppling over, to be propped up by 
mine! ” 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


She was only half in earnest, hut the 
reply was tender and grave. 

“ Shall the weak brother perish for 
whom Christ died? ” 

The question had an instant, and to the 
one who realized herself as an outsider, 
an amazing effect. 

“ No,” said the girl who had been only 
half serious, with an earnestness that car- 
ried conviction with it. “ Not if any 
word or act or influence of mine can help 
prevent it.” Her voice broke with the 
last word. And some of the girls were 
brushing away tears. 

Faye Willis spoke impulsively: 

“ Oh, girls! if we could only remember 
that. When I think of Jesus Christ, of 
who he is, and what he sacrificed, and 
how he lived, and how he died for the 
sake of others, my own life seems so 
small and selfish and mean that I hate 
myself! What we need, after all, is the 
constant companionship of Christ ; it 
would settle these, and all other ques- 
tions, to he so near to him all the while 
that we should not have to stop and re- 


138 


AT A SOCIAL FUNCTION 

call the fact that he is here because we 
dwelt in the same atmosphere. I am just 
beginning to get a hint, a faint glimpse, 
of the meaning of that verse: 4 He that 
dwelleth in the secret place of the Most 
High, shall abide under the shadow of 
the Almighty/ Don’t we content our- 
selves with visiting the Lord Jesus at 
stated intervals, instead of dwelling with 
him! I do so want to abide.” 

Anfi Lida Brownson said quickly: 

“ 1 know what you mean. I was won- 
dering last night if 1 could not almost 
claim the 4 blessed ’ of those who hunger 
and thirst after righteousness. 1 think 
I never wanted abiding fellowship with 
the Master so much as I have since I 
came on these grounds.” 

Then a girl who had not heretofore 
spoken said simply: 

“ I want to pray,” and bowed her head 
on her hand. 

The words she spoke were simplicity 
itself, as were the words of others who 
followed in quick succession. Yet one, 
listening, who understood the analysis of 

139 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


prayer, would have been sure that the 
Lord was once more verifying his prom- 
ise that where two or three were gathered 
because of him, he would be in their 
midst. 


140 


X 


MISS BROWN A BIBLE STUDENT 

It was all very bewildering and yet 
strangely fascinating. Mary Brown was 
conscious that she had come to that after- 
noon gathering partly as a critic, but the 
spirit which had been roused in her was 
not one of criticism. She had watched 
in vain for the incongruities ; when the 
more distinctly social part of the hour 
was reached, the girls made the transition 
easily and quite as a matter of course. 

As they ate cake and cream together, 
they chatted pleasantly on any topic that 
happened to be mentioned, and expressed 
their opinions of the latest fad in sleeves, 
or the last college function, or the Bible 
lesson that some of them had heard that 
morning, without any thought of incon- 
gruity. 


141 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


The outsider, as she walked quickly 
back to her tent to make ready for din- 
ing-room duties, went carefully over the 
enigma which the scene had suggested. 

“ They do not patch the religious and 
the secular together; instead of that, re- 
ligion seems to be their life, and the sec- 
ular, whether represented by work or 
pleasure, merely incidental, a means to 
an end. Yet they are just plain American 
girls like hundreds of others that I have 
known, and at the same * time as unlike 
them as possible. Can this strange thing 
that they name religion make the differ- 
ence? I don’t think I am in a critical 
mood, but I wonder if I am not envious? 
That last prayer was unlike any that it 
would be possible for me to offer in sin- 
cerity, and the girl was sincere; they all 
are; and they have something that I have 
not. What is it? Mrs. Roberts calls it 
‘ being converted ; ’ one would like * to 
know just what she means by that. I 
know it is what she covets for Aileen. 
Aileen and I are the ones who are not 
getting from this summer’s outing what 
142 


MISS BROWN A BIBLE STUDENT 


the others are. In her case it seems to be 
chiefly clothes that hinder. What can it 
be with me? ” 

Her half-whimsical, half-tender thought 
lingered for a few minutes about Aileen, 
the pretty, winsome girl who was at once 
her mother’s pride and anxiety For the 
mother’s sake, if not for her own, Mary 
Brown felt that she would like to help the 
child if she could. She needed help. Her 
ambitions for herself were almost as 
great as her mother’s for her; yet she 
had utterly false ideas of values and ab- 
surdly erroneous notions of the great out- 
side world in which she longed to find a 
place. But Mary Brown felt her limita- 
tions as never before. There were many 
ways in which Miss Brown of Euston 
Square could have helped her. That in- 
teresting question of dress, for instance, 
could have been disposed of so easily. 
She had smiled and sighed over the sit- 
uation on the afternoon when Aileen was 
making ready to join some of her mates 
for a birthday drive and picnic, and her 
only available white dress was found to 


143 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


be disfigured with a zigzag tear. Her 
mother had darned it skilfully and damp- 
ened and pressed with such care that the 
result was surprising to Mary Brown, 
but Aileen had been disdainful and had 
shed some tears over the poverty of her 
wardrobe, and Mary Brown had thought 
of a tray full of unused pretty white 
things in her suit-case, any one of which 
would have covered blemishes and filled 
Aileen ’s heart with joy. But she had also 
discovered that, because she was Mrs. 
Roberts’s “ help,” she must not offer to 
lend. And there were others ways in 
which she had shut herself off from help- 
fulness by this adventure of hers. Miss 
Brown was used to having girls of seven- 
teen look up to her, and delight in follow- 
ing her advice. Mary Brown, who daily 
set tables and waited on them in Mrs. 
Roberts’s dining-room, knew that Aileen 
would esteem it an impertinence to be 
advised by her. 

But the dining-room girl, as she put 
off her lace collar and put on her large 
white apron, admitted to herself that the 

144 


MISS BROWN A BIBLE STUDENT 


was sane and scholarly, for the sake of 
refreshing her knowledge of Bible his- 
tory. She had heard some talk among 
the boarders of this teacher; he was evi- 
dently a man of note, and not emotional 
in his style she felt certain, for she had 
heard him speak for a few minutes on 
two occasions. Perhaps the best thing 
she could do for herself to recover her 
mental poise would be to join this class 
and give really hard study to the lessons. 

“ I will take it instead of those devo- 
tional meetings/ ’ she told herself. “ They 
are so peculiar, so unlike any other meet- 
ings that I ever heard of, that they de- 
moralize me. I never was intended for 
a. fanatic; but a sane and reasonable 
study of Old Testament history I should 
really enjoy.” 

Mrs. Roberts received her decision with 
joy, but objected to the giving up of the 
devotional hour. 

“ You can have them both as well as 
not,” she urged. “ The fact is, you do 
so much more work, while you are at it, 
than T expected you could, that you are 

147 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


always ahead; and then I’ve got my work 
so planned, anyway, that it doesn’t hurry 
me as it used to. I guess you are at the 
bottom of that, too; you’ve got a head 
for business and management, I can see 
that. I do hope you will make up your 
mind to stay with me this winter. But 
you go to the prayer-meeting, too; it will 
hearten you up for the day as nothing 
else will. I’ll go sometimes; Aileen will 
help with the work and give me a chance; 
she says she would rather than not, and 
I’d like you to enjoy the meetings as 
much as you can. Maybe you don’t have 
just such where you live.” 

That was true, and Miss Brown had to 
admit it; but for two days she was firm. 
She worked steadily through the devo- 
tional hour, and went Bible in hand to 
the later class. 

And the class was, in its way, as much 
of an astonishment as the prayer-meeting 
had been. It was scholarly, her studies 
in college had prepared her to appreciate 
this. It was critical in a very close and 
unanswerable way; and there were mem- 
14S 


MISS BROWN A BIBLE STUDENT 


bers of the class who saw to it that there 
should he abundant opportunity for> crit- 
icism. They boldly challenged the lead- 
er’s opinions and demanded the differing 
ones and his reasons for pressing his. 
In every instance he was prepared for 
them, being able to give author and book 
and page, and to reply to his statements 
with the statements of other scholars who 
differed. But it was much more than 
that; the teacher succeeded from the first 
in making it plain that the object of the 
class was not to tear dowji the views of 
others, but to learn as much truth as 
could be packed into a given time. His- 
tory, biography, prophecy were carefully 
mapped out to be gone over, not in detail, 
but so as to get a large view of the whole 
and to get it for a purpose. Miss Brown, 
listening with the critical attention that 
her student habits had cultivated, discov- 
ered, and discovered it to her intense sur- 
prise, that from the first chapter of Gen- 
esis on through the last prophetic book, 
the theme was redemption for a fallen 
world. Nor did she by any means in this 


149 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


critical study of history get away for an 
hour from what she had chosen to call an 
emotional view of the historic person 
named Jesus. The first words she had 
heard from the teacher as she came, a 
few minutes late, into the class had been 
a quotation which for some reason had 
taken strange hold of her. 

“ Thirty years alone I trod 
Galilee’s sequestered sod, 

Yet I was the Son of God.” 

These were the lines, and they continued 
echoing as a refrain to her thoughts while 
the lesson progressed. The thought of 
Christ’s sacrifice for a sinful world was 
being emphasized, as a rapid review was 
given of the wonderful life that began in 
the helplessness of babyhood and moved 
unflinchingly through the sorrows, the 
trials, the indignities, the humiliations, 
the awful sufferings that were thrust 
upon him, down to the very end. Un- 
known by those who should have been 
watching for him, disowned by those who 
should have been ready to die for him, 
doubted by those who had every reason 


150 


MISS BROWN A BIBLE STUDENT 

to trust him, what had his thirty years 
of life to show but self-abnegation of the 
most startling kind? “ Yet he was the 
Son of God! ” 

The wonder of it, the awe of it, the 
unutterable anguish of it took hold of this 
young learner’s heart as never before. 
An.d when the teacher, rising suddenly to 
one of those pregnant phrases with which 
he sometimes emphasized his lesson, said 
in a ringing voice, “ Jesus Christ is a 
walking, living, breathing expression of 
God, her intellect took hold of the thought 
and held it before her conscience in a way 
that almost overwhelmed her. Clearly, if 
she was to avoid the emotional in religion, 
the study of Jesus Christ was not for her. 

Yet to be at Mount Hermon and not 
study him grew daily more of an impos- 
sibility. She made strenuous efforts in 
this very direction, eager to get away 
from what she told herself was evidently 
a local fad, but what she afterwards came 
to recognize as an awakened conscience. 
She studied the programme with a view 
to finding intellectual treats. She se- 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


lected a name well-known to her in the 
East, a celebrated scholar, and one whom 
she was quite sure would be clear and 
calm and unbiassed. She made known her 
wish to go and hear him, and Mrs. Rob- 
erts, who grew every day more eager to 
give her pleasure, was prompt and cordial 
in her response. 

The man ’s theme, ‘ ‘ What is Christian- 
ity? ” was interesting to this supposed 
seeker after truth. She wanted to have 
a clear and unprejudiced answer to that 
question, such an answer as she felt sure 
the speaker could give. 

His first full paragraph gave her a 
curious twinge. “ The question,” he said, 
“ that an unprejudiced and sincere seeker 
after truth would ask himself in relation 
to this study: ‘ How far does what that 
book or that man teaches accord — 
not with me — but with Christianity? ’ ” 
Judged by this definition, had she been 
unprejudiced and sincere? Had she not 
been annoyed with the atmosphere of the 
place because it did not accord with her 


152 


MISS BROWN A BIBLE STUDENT 


ideas? She gave some thought to that, 
then listened again and heard: 

“ I am not called upon to create Chris- 
tianity, it is here. It has a history. I 
ought to be able to describe it as com- 
pletely as I would be able, after study, 
to describe any definite historic fact so 
that students could recognize it. I need 
not necessarily describe it as I would like 
to have it, or as I might have had it if 
I had made it; or as I personally live 
with regard to it, but simply as it is, as 
a historical fact, a well-known fact.” 

After that, she listened for his descrip- 
tion, trying, meantime, to formulate one 
for herself. How would she describe re- 
ligion, and how far would her view agree 
with his ? 

“ Christianity as a historical religion,” 
said the speaker, “ is a life of conscious 
reconciliation with God, through faith in 
the historic person known as Jesus 
Christ.” ■ 

And then there was no more real listen- 
ing for Mary Brown. She found that her 
intellect not only accepted this definition, 


153 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


so far as it went, but added to it and be- 
lieved in the logical conclusions that fol- 
lowed. What she was confronted with, 
curiously enough for the first time in her 
life, was the fact that her daily habit of 
living did not accord with these defini- 
tions. With her intellect, then, she sub- 
scribed to certain well-defined and ex- 
ceedingly important beliefs, and then let 
them pass for the merest trivialities so 
far as practical application of them was 
concerned! But this was not a sane, calm 
way of living, it was the action of a fool! 

“ I am a church-member, ’ ’ said Mary 
Brown, u and have been for years, but I 
do not live ‘ a life of conscious reconcilia- 
tion with God. ’ It might more properly 
be said of me that I do not think of God 
at all. , ’ Her thoughts reverted to Mr. 
Brown and the plain words he had spoken : 
4 4 I have known church-members who had 
no more knowledge, apparently, of what 
it was to have companionship with Jesus 
Christ than though they had never heard 
his name.” And that description, she 
told herself, fitted her. 


154 


MISS BROWN A BIBLE STUDENT 

She went away from the lecture more 
out of harmony with life than ever before. 
Religion, it seemed, was not only some- 
thing that she had not, but could not get. 
How was one to get into “ conscious rec- 
onciliation with Grod! ” How could she 
expect him ever to be satisfied with her! 
She was utterly dissatisfied with herself. 
She stayed away from one Bible class, 
but on the third morning she went again; 
simply to gratify Mrs. Roberts, she as- 
sured herself. She went late, and the 
leader was telling the class an incident 
in his life. 

“ It was years and years ago,” he said. 
“ I had known the Lord, theoretically, for 
a long time, and was satisfied enough, be- 
cause I thought little’ or nothing about 
him. I had no theory of the atonement, 
and had I been questioned, should have 
said that one theory was as good as an- 
other. But there came a time when I was 
distinctly conscious of sin. I was in ex- 
tremity; nothing in myself or out of my- 
self brought relief until I thought of 
Christ as a substitute. ‘ 0 Lord/ my 
155 


THE BROWNS AT MT. HERMON 


soul cried out in its agony, ‘ let me see 
the blood! 9 And friends, I found that 
the cross is a necessity to the awakened 
conscience. There is a righteousness be- 
fore God in the personal work of Christ 
which satisfies.” 

The poor, soul-hungry girl had to ha- 
stily cover her face for a moment with a 
sheltering hand because of a sudden rush 
of tears, and her heart cried out with a 
great longing: “ Oh, to be satisfied! ” 


156 




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